Fully connectorized high-speed Ti:LiNbO₃switch/modulator for time-division multiplexing and data encoding

Abstract

We demonstrate a fully connectorized and packaged, 2×1 high-speed Ti:LiNbO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</inf> directional coupler switch suitable for both optical time-division multiplexing/demultiplexing and modulation at a 1.3- μm wavelength. The device has an intrinsic switching time of 60 ps and a small-signal 50-percent optical modulation depth bandwidth of 6 GHz. We have actively multiplexed two optical pulse streams with output non-return-to-zero (NRZ) center-to-center bit spacings of less than 100 ps, while incurring an average optical power penalty of only 0.5 dB. In addition, we have used this switch as a modulator to encode a pseudo-random data stream at 2-Gbit/s NRZ without degradation of the eye pattern or the semiconductor laser source spectrum.