Rihards Murnieks

Promocijas darbā izpētīta optisko frekvenču ķemmes ģenerācija silīcija rezonatoros un lietojums optiskajos tīklos.

The potential whispering gallery mode resonator-based optical frequency comb light source is an ideal candidate, in terms of stability and power efficiency, for optical communication systems to replace the laser array solution. Silica microspheres and micro-rods are relatively simple to fabricate from the standard single-mode fibre. The Doctoral Thesis evaluates optical frequency comb light sources based on silica microspheres and micro-rods and the implementation of optical frequency comb light sources for wavelength-division multiplexing passive optical networks and data centre interconnects.

Conventional data center interconnects rely on power-hungry arrays of discrete wavelength laser sources. However, growing bandwidth demand severely challenges ensuring the power and spectral efficiency toward which data center interconnects tend to strive. Kerr frequency combs based on silica microresonators can replace multiple laser arrays, easing the pressure on data center interconnect infrastructure. Therefore, we experimentally demonstrate a bit rate of up to 100 Gbps/λ employing 4-level pulse amplitude modulated signal transmission over a 2 km long short-reach optical interconnect that can be considered a record using any Kerr frequency comb light source, specifically based on a silica micro-rod. In addition, data transmission using the non-return to zero on-off keying modulation format is demonstrated to achieve 60 Gbps/λ. The silica micro-rod resonator-based Kerr frequency comb light source generates an optical frequency comb in the optical C-band with 90 GHz spacing between optical carriers. Data transmission is supported by frequency domain pre-equalization techniques to compensate amplitude–frequency distortions and limited bandwidths of electrical system components. Additionally, achievable results are enhanced with offline digital signal processing, implementing post-equalization using feed-forward and feedback taps.

Optical frequency combs (OFCs) generated in microresonators can substitute for widely employed power-hungry laser arrays, ensuring spectral and energy efficiency in wavelength-division multiplexed passive optical networks (WDM-PONs). Here, we propose a realistic design of a WDM-PON based on a silica microresonator generating an OFC in the dissipative Kerr soliton regime and present a corresponding theoretical study, paying particular attention to the impact of the comb linewidth on the characteristics of the communication system. Using intensive numerical simulation, data transmission performance in an eight-channel 100 GHz spaced WDM-PON is investigated for OFC carrier linewidths of 100 kHz, 1 MHz, 10 MHz, and 100 MHz. We show that microresonator-based OFCs with linewidths of up to 100 MHz can be used for a non-return-to-zero on-off keying modulated data transmission system and give an acceptable bit error rate (BER). Results show that the narrower the linewidth, the lower the BER is. The data transmission results show that error-free data transmission is possible with a BER of 4.4 × 10 ⁻¹² for 100 kHz OFC carrier linewidth, providing 80 Gbps of total data rate on eight OFC generated carriers.

This article reports an implementation of a microsphere-based optical frequency comb (OFC) generator for substitution of individual laser arrays and simulates wavelength division multiplexed passive optical network (WDM-PON) based on this OFC generator. Our proposed generator is built based on silica microsphere, barely studied for fiber optical communication systems, and is a promising solution with photonic integration capability. Kerr OFC as a multiple light source containing more than 20 spectral carriers in the fundamental mode family in the C-band and beyond is demonstrated experimentally. Four of these OFC generator carriers with the highest peak power are studied in simulated 4-channel 393 GHz spaced WDM-PON. Additionally, we show this OFC as a source of optical carriers capable of providing data transmission over most utilized fiber types in modern optical communication systems, namely, single-mode fiber (SMF), non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber (NZ-DSF), and cut-off shifted fiber (CSF). We show through the simulations that error-free data transmission is possible, providing a total transmission capacity of 40 Gbit/s by using four OFC generated carriers.

Space-division multiplexing (SDM) attracts attention to cladding-pumped optical amplifiers, but they suffer from a low pump power conversion efficiency. To address this issue, ytterbium (Yb³⁺) and erbium (Er³⁺) co-doping is considered as an effective approach. However, it changes the gain profile of Er³⁺-doped fiber amplifiers and induces the gain difference between optical wavelengths in the C-band, significantly limiting the effective band of the dense wavelength-division multiplexed (DWDM) system. This paper is devoted to a detailed study of a cladding-pumped Er³⁺/Yb³⁺ co-doped fiber amplifier (EYDFA) through numerical simulations aiming to identify a configuration, before assembling a similar EYDFA in our laboratory premises that ensures the desired performance. The simulation model is based on a commercial double cladding EYDF whose parameters are experimentally extracted and fed to the EYDFA setup for the system-level studies. We investigate the wavelength dependence of the amplifier’s characteristics (absolute gain, gain uniformity, noise figure) and bit error rate (BER) performance for several DWDM channels and their optical power. The obtained results show that a 7 m long EYDF and co-propagating pump direction is preferable for the EYDFA with a 3 W pump source at 975 nm and with the given gain medium characteristics for WDM applications. For instance, it ensures a gain of 19.7–28.3 dB and a noise figure of 3.7–4.2 dB when amplifying 40 DWDM channels with the input power of −20 dBm per channel. Besides, we study EYDFA gain bandwidth and the maximum output power when operating close to the saturation regime and perform a sensitivity analysis showing how the doped fiber’s absorption and emission cross-sections impact the amplification process through energy transfer from Yb³⁺ to Er³⁺. Finally, we quantify the power penalty introduced by the EYDFA; the results show that it is not higher than 0.1 dB when amplifying 40 × 10 Gbps non-return-to-zero on-off keying signals from −20 dBm/channel.

We review the frequency comb generation process, main microresonator parameters such as free spectral range (FSR) and Q-factor, previously used optical frequency comb (OFC) generator parameters and resulting frequency combs, as well as the implementation of OFC for optical data transmission. An optical frequency comb is produced in a setup based on a tapered fibre and a SiO₂ microsphere. The generated frequency comb has a frequency spacing of 2 nm or 257 GHz. During the fabrication of a tapered fibre from SMF28, use is made of the transmission signal to control the taper pulling process. The final measured tapered fibre transmission is ∼96%. A microsphere whispering gallery-mode resonator (WGMR), exhibiting a Q-factor of at least 2 × 10⁷, is fabricated from an optical fibre with a thicker core than SSMF. Moreover, for future experiments, a frequency comb generator based on a free-space setup consisting of lenses, a prism, and a microsphere is developed, and the Q-factor dependence on different distances between the prism and the microsphere is investigated.

Optical frequency comb (OFC) generators based on whispering gallery mode (WGM) microresonators have a massive potential to ensure spectral and energy efficiency in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) telecommunication systems. The use of silica microspheres for telecommunication applications has hardly been studied but could be promising. We propose, investigate, and optimize numerically a simple design of a silica microsphere-based OFC generator in the C-band with a free spectral range of 200 GHz and simulate its implementation to provide 4-channel 200 GHz spaced WDM data transmission system. We calculate microsphere characteristics such as WGM eigenfrequencies, dispersion, nonlinear Kerr coefficient with allowance for thermo-optical effects, and simulate OFC generation in the regime of a stable dissipative Kerr soliton. We show that by employing generated OFC lines as optical carriers for WDM data transmission, it is possible to ensure error-free data transmission with a bit error rate (BER) of 4.5 × 10⁻³⁰, providing a total of 40 Gbit/s of transmission speed on four channels.

Four-wave mixing (FWM) is one of the well-known nonlinear optical effects (NOE), and it is considered as an adverse impact in fibre optical communication lines. This nonlinear optical effect as a productive one can be used in fibre optical communication systems for various optical processing functions, like wavelength conversion, high-speed time-division multiplexing (TDM), pulse compression, fibre optical parametric amplifiers (FOPA), etc. In most of the fibre optical communication systems, each data transmission channel requires one light source (e.g., laser) as a carrier, which can make these transmission systems expensive. For example, to provide operation of 4-channel dense wavelength-division-multiplexed (DWDM) system four separate lasers at specific operation wavelengths are needed. On the contrary, through the FWM effect, which can be obtained in highly nonlinear optical fibre (HNLF) by using two high-power pump lasers, the generation of new multiple carriers forming the laser array or a multi-wavelength source is possible. Accordingly, within the present research, we investigate the latter approach for FWM light source implementation in DWDM passive optical networks (DWDM-PONs). We analyse up to 16-channel 50 GHz spaced DWDM-PON system with a bitrate of up to 10 Gbit/s per channel, constructed on the basis of two high-power continuous wave (CW) pump lasers. We evaluate the system performance against the number of its channels by changing it from 4 to 16 and in each case find the most optimal HNLF fibre length (for a 4-channel system it is 0.9 km; for an 8-channel system – 1.39 km; and for a 16-channel system – 1.05 km) and laser pump powers (for a 4-channel system it is 20 dBm; for an 8-channel system – 24.1 dBm; and for a 16-channel system – 26.3 dBm). These optimal parameters were found in order to get the highest system performance, respectively, the lowest BER (threshold BER≤10⁻¹⁰), and minimal power fluctuations among FWM generated carriers. The obtained results show that the proposed transmission system can be a promising solution for next-generation high-speed PONs.

This paper aims to review recent developments in the field of doped fiber-based optical amplifiers and serve as a reference for promising optical signal amplification techniques that may be useful for practical implementation in high-capacity and cost-efficient telecommunications systems. The main focus is put on different rare-earth dopant elements, double-clad fibers, and optical couplers for cladding-pumping technique. It is found that codoped double-clad fiber-based amplifiers currently have attained the main research interest and show possible application also in multichannel fiber optical transmission systems. Additionally, we have compared different free space and waveguide construction optical coupling techniques suitable for doped double-clad fiber amplifiers.