OPTICAL SIGNAL REGENERATOR AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM INCORPORATING SAME

摘要

An optical signal regenerator (2) has a semiconductor laser in a resonant cavity defined by a mirror (6) and a semireflective facet (8) of the laser (4) to form a resonant, non-linear, optical amplifier. A polarisation beam splitter (12) allows resonance in one polarisation mode only. A clock signal generator (16) provides clock signals in the resonant polarisation mode of a power just below the optical power bistable threshold of the amplifier. An information signal coupled to the laser (4) by a lens (24) and the beam splitter (12) is in a non-resonant mode of the amplifier and will give rise to a regenerator output by triggering the bistability. Because the information signal is in a non-resonant mode its wavelength need not be controlled to lie near a resonance peak of the amplifier so reducing control requirements.