Abstract
We report an all-optical packet buffer that is based on four-wave mixing loading and intracavity soliton pulse control. The target data packet consisting of picosecond pulses is loaded into the storage-buffer cavity by means of four-wave mixing with the pump pulses and stored at the corresponding idler wavelength. We stabilize the timing and amplitude of the stored idler pulses by applying intracavity all-optical soliton control. This is accomplished by combining the synchronous parametric-gain modulation achieved inside a pulse-pumped nonlinear-optical-loop mirror with the intensity discrimination provided by a nonlinear-amplifying-loop mirror. A 20 Gbit/s-packet pattern is loaded and stored for up to several seconds, corresponding to millions of circulations of the packet within the buffer.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 614-619 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2002 |
Funding
Manuscript received July 23, 2001; revised March 11, 2002. This work was supported in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, through the AFOSR, under Grant F49620-96-1-0262. This paper was presented as a post-deadline paper at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO’2000) held in San Francisco, CA, USA, May 7–12, 2000 [see CLEO’00 Post-Conference Technical Digest (Optical Society of America), paper CPD20].
Keywords
- Buffer memories
- Nonlinear optics
- Optical fiber communication
- Optical fiber devices
- Optical mixing
- Optical parametric amplifiers
- Optical solitons
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering