Management of dispersion, nonlinearity and polarization-dependent effects in high-speed reconfigurable WDM fiber optic communication systems

As optical communications approach more data bandwidth, longer transmission distance, and more reconfigurability, dispersion, nonlinearity and polarization-dependent effects are becoming key issues for future all-optical fiber optic systems and networks. For ≥10 Gbit/s optical fiber transmission systems, it is critical that chromatic dispersion and polarization-mode-dispersion be well monitored and compensated using some type of dispersion monitoring and compensation. On the other hand, dispersive and nonlinear effects in optical fiber systems can also be beneficial and have applications on pulse management, all-optical signal processing and network function, which will be essential for high bite-rate optical networks and replacing the expensive optical-electrical-optical (O/E/O) conversion.; In this Ph.D. dissertation, we present a detailed research on dispersion, nonlinearity, and polarization-dependent effects in high-speed optical communication systems. We have demonstrated: (i) A dynamic channel-spacing tunable multi-wavelength Erbium-doped fiber laser; (ii) Chromatic-dispersion-insensitive PMD monitoring by tracking the radio-frequency extracted from the vestigial-sideband; (iii) A method for simultaneous chromatic and polarization-mode dispersions monitoring by adding a frequency-shifted carrier; (iv) Polarization-insensitive optical parametric amplification by depolarizing the pump; (v) All optical chromatic dispersion monitoring potential for ultra-high speed (>40 Gbit/s) optical systems using cross-phase modulation in a highly nonlinear fiber; (vi) A novel fiber-based autocorrelator using polarimetric four-wave mixing effect and a tunable differential-group-delay element; (vii) A simple all-fiber-based autocorrelator by measuring the degree-of-polarization; and (viii) Reduction of pattern dependent data distortion in a stimulated Brillouin scattering based slow light element.; These techniques will play key roles in future high-speed dynamic WDM optical fiber communication systems and reconfigurable networks.