ADVANCED OPTICAL MODULATION GENERATION BY COMBINING ORTHOGONAL POLARIZED OPTICAL SIGNALS

摘要

Disclosed are adaptive structures and methods for generating advanced modulation formats using multiple levels such as PAM-4, PAM-8 as well as regular OOK or PM OOK formats. Structures and methods disclosed include an unequal power splitter that may exhibit a fixed or tunable splitting ratio such that adaptive format(s) may be generated.

主权项

1. An Mach Zehnder (MZI) optical modulator comprising:
a tunable splitter for splitting input light into two modulator arms of the MZI; a polarization combiner for combining light from the two arms into output light; wherein one of the MZI modulator arms includes an on-off-keying modulator (OOK), the other MZI modulator arm includes an OOK modulator followed by a polarization rotator; wherein the tunable splitter is configured such that one portion of the input light is directed into the one MZI modulator arm having the OOK modulator and another portion of the input light is directed into the other MZI modulator arm having the OOK modulator followed by the polarization rotator; such that output light exhibits a modulation format selected from the group consisting of PAM-4, PM-OOK, and OOK.