Dispersion Decreasing Fibres for Soliton Generation and Transmission Line Loss Compensation

Abstract

We describe recent results concerning the fabrication and applications of optical fibres with accurately controlled and defined axial dispersion variation. We focus on two applications. Firstly, we describe the development of a 40 Gbit/s soliton transmitter based on beat-signal to soliton train conversion in a dispersion decreasing fibre. 40 GHz, <5ps pulses with <300 fs timing jitter are first generated. 40 Gbit/s data is successfully encoded via direct, all-optical modulation in a Kerr gate. Secondly, we demonstrate true soliton loss compensation in a fibre with a disperson matched to the power loss profile within the fibre. Low distortion propagation of 2.0 ps pulses over 20 km (44 soliton periods) and of 3.5 ps pulses over 38 km (18 soliton periods) is obtained in both the temporal and spectral domains illustrating the quality of the loss compensation achieved.