Coherent terabit communications with microresonator Kerr frequency combs

Pfeifle, J.; Brasch, Victor; Lauermann, Matthias; Yu, Yang‐Yen; Wegner, Daniel; Herr, Tobias; Hartinger, Klaus; Schindler, Philipp; Li, Jingshi; Hillerkuss, D.; Schmogrow, R.; Weimann, C.; Holzwarth, Ronald; Freude, W.; Leuthold, Juerg; Kippenberg, Tobias J.; Koos, C.

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2014.57

Cited by 628 publications

(374 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…These frequency combs can be integrated on chips [4] and used to measure time intervals and light frequencies with a exquisite accuracy, leading to numerous key applications [5][6][7][8][9]. In this framework a Kerr frequency comb corresponds to the frequency spectrum of a temporal dissipative structure, such as patterns or solitons, circulating inside the cavity [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coexistence of stable dark- and bright-soliton Kerr combs in normal-dispersion resonators

2017

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Using the Lugiato-Lefever model, we analyze the effects of third-order chromatic dispersion on the existence and stability of dark-and bright-soliton Kerr frequency combs in the normal dispersion regime. While in the absence of third-order dispersion only dark solitons exist over an extended parameter range, we find that third-order dispersion allows for stable dark and bright solitons to coexist. Reversibility is broken and the shape of the switching waves connecting the top and bottom homogeneous solutions is modified. Bright solitons come into existence thanks to the generation of oscillations in the switching-wave profiles. Temporal oscillatory instabilities of dark solitons are suppressed in the presence of sufficiently strong third-order dispersion, while bright solitons are never found to oscillate in time. As a result of third-order dispersion both bright and dark solitons are found to move with a velocity that depends on their width.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coexistence of stable dark- and bright-soliton Kerr combs in normal-dispersion resonators

2017

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“…For application in optical communications, frequency comb sources must be compact. In recent years, a wide variety of chip-scale comb generators have been demonstrated [14,15], enabling transmission of WDM data streams with line rates [16] of up to 12 Tbit/s. Transmission at higher line rates however, requires more carriers and lower noise levels, and still relies on spectral broadening of narrowband seed combs using dedicated optical fibers [8,11,12] or nanophotonic waveguides [17].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Microresonator-based Kerr comb sources [19,20] intrinsically offer unique advantages such as small footprint, large number of narrow-linewidth optical carriers, and line spacings of tens of GHz, which can be designed to fit established WDM frequency grids. However, while these advantages were recognized, previous transmission experiments [15] were limited to aggregate line rates of 1.44 Tbit/s due to strong irregularities of the optical spectrum associated with the specific Kerr comb states.…”

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confidence: 99%

Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications

Marin-Palomo

Kemal

Karpov

et al. 2017

Nature

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Optical solitons are waveforms that preserve their shape while propagating, relying on a balance of dispersion and nonlinearity [1,2]. Soliton-based data transmission schemes were investigated in the 1980s, promising to overcome the limitations imposed by dispersion of optical fibers. These approaches, however, were eventually abandoned in favor of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) schemes that are easier to implement and offer improved scalability to higher data rates. Here, we show that solitons may experience a comeback in optical communications, this time not as a competitor, but as a key element of massively parallel WDM. Instead of encoding data on the soliton itself, we exploit continuously circulating dissipative Kerr solitons (DKS) in a microresonator [3,4]. DKS are generated in an integrated silicon nitride microresonator [5] by four-photon interactions mediated by Kerr nonlinearity, leading to low-noise, spectrally smooth and broadband optical frequency combs [6]. In our experiments, we use two interleaved soliton Kerr combs to trans-mit a data stream of more than 50 Tbit/s on a total of 179 individual optical carriers that span the entire telecommunication C and L bands. Equally important, we demonstrate coherent detection of a WDM data stream by using a pair of microresonator Kerr soliton combs one as a multi-wavelength light source at the transmitter, and another one as a corresponding local oscillator (LO) at the receiver. This approach exploits the scalability advantages of microresonator soliton comb sources for massively parallel optical communications both at the transmitter and receiver side. Taken together, the results prove the significant potential of these sources to replace arrays of continuous-wave lasers in high-speed communications. In combination with advanced spatial multiplexing schemes [7,8] and highly integrated silicon photonic circuits [9], DKS combs may bring chip-scale petabit/s transceivers into reach.The first observation of solitons in optical fibers [2] in 1980 was immediately followed by major research efforts to harness such waveforms for long-haul communications [1]. In these schemes, data was encoded on soliton pulses by simple amplitude modulation using on-off-keying (OOK). However, even though the viability of the approach was experimentally demonstrated by transmission over one million kilometres [10], the vision of soliton-based communications was ultimately hindered by difficulties in achieving shape-preserving propagation in real transmission systems [1] and by the fact that nonlinear interactions intrinsically prevent dense packing of soliton pulses in either the time or frequency domain. Moreover, with the advent of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), line rates in long-haul communication systems could be increased by rather simple parallel transmission of data streams with lower symbol rates, which are less dispersion sensitive. Consequently, soliton-based communication schemes have moved out of focus over the last two decades. More recently, frequ...

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“…The triangular phase can be generated either through RF waveform generators and phase modulators or photonic generators combined with cross-phase modulation experienced during propagation in a highly nonlinear fiber [34]. pulses can be obtained from the frequency filtering of a continuum spectrum generated in a normally dispersive fiber [37] or in microresonators [38]. Results are displayed in Fig.…”

Section: Fresnel's Biprismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two-wave interferences space-time duality: Young slits, Fresnel biprism and Billet bilens

Chaussard

Rigneault

Finot

2017

Optics Communications

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Taking advantage of the analogy that can be drawn between the spatial and temporal propagations, we explore two-wave temporal interference in textbook cases such as Young's double slits, Fresnel's biprism and Billet's bilens. We illustrate our approach by numerical simulations for short pulses propagating in dispersive optical fibers with parameters typical of those found in modern optical telecommunications.

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Coherent terabit communications with microresonator Kerr frequency combs

Cited by 628 publications

References 45 publications

Coexistence of stable dark- and bright-soliton Kerr combs in normal-dispersion resonators

Coexistence of stable dark- and bright-soliton Kerr combs in normal-dispersion resonators

Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications

Two-wave interferences space-time duality: Young slits, Fresnel biprism and Billet bilens

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