Coherent terabit communications with microresonator Kerr frequency combs.

ABSTRACT: Optical frequency combs have the potential to revolutionize terabit communications¹. Generation of Kerr combs in nonlinear microresonators² represents a particularly promising option³ enabling line spacings of tens of GHz. However, such combs may exhibit strong phase noise^4-6, which has made high-speed data transmission impossible up to now. Here we demonstrate that systematic adjustment of pump conditions for low phase noise^4,7-9 enables coherent data transmission with advanced modulation formats that pose stringent requirements on the spectral purity of the comb. In a first experiment, we encode a data stream of 392 Gbit/s on a Kerr comb using quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and 16-state quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM).

SUBMITTER: Pfeifle J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4028627 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature