Abstract:A new scheme for direct synthesis of QAM (4,16,64,..) from binary RF data streams is suggested and tested by generating 10 Gbaud QPSK. Current semiconductor lasers should allow for operation up to 160 Gbaud.OCIS codes: (060.2340) Fiber optics components; (060.2380) Fiber optics sources and detectors
IntroductionCoherent optical communications allows for better resilience to transmission-related linear and nonlinear impairments (e.g., using binary phase shift keying, BPSK) and/or for increased capacity via the transmission of several bits per symbol (e.g., QPSK, 16 QAM and higher). For these modulation formats, which exploit modulation of phase, direct modulation of the signaling laser is generally not possible due to the high chirp associated with such a modulation approach. Instead, an external IQ modulator is typically used, made from materials such as LiNbO 3 or InP. Although this approach clearly works well it brings several drawbacks: (i) a relatively high cost; (ii) significant insertion loss and limited optical power handling; (iii) the need for high drive voltage RF booster amplifiers; and (iv), a typical IQ modulator requires the processing (division into I and Q) and associated multiplexing of multiple high-speed binary electronic data signals, resulting in increased power loss and power consumption, noise and nonlinearity (which is particularly detrimental when the I and Q data streams have more than two levels, e.g., for 16-QAM, each has 4 levels). This last feature can be mitigated by using more complicated modulators with multiple electrical inputs and multiplexing in the optical domain [1], however, this comes at the cost of a higher optical insertion loss which in turn compromises the achievable OSNR (a critical issue when working with advanced modulation format signals).Here, we propose a new solution that simultaneously avoids all four issues associated with the use of external IQ modulators. It is based on ultralow chirp direct modulation of injection-locked (IL) semiconductor lasers followed by coherent superposition and coherent carrier suppression of their output. We show experimental results for BPSK and QPSK modulation, although it is straightforward to extend the basic concept to 16 QAM and higher modulation formats. We note that several techniques have previously been reported for constant-envelope modulation (e.g. BPSK, QPSK) based on direct laser or SOA based phase modulation [2] [3] [4], with some of these incorporating injection-locking [4]. However, in our opinion, these schemes cannot be straightforwardly extended to higher modulation formats (e.g. 16 QAM), offer limited performance and/or are applicable only to RZ formats.