Abstract
A tunable orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength optical signal generator is proposed based on an integrated dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying modulator, a polarizer and a Sagnac loop. By driving the integrated modulator with an RF signal, an optical signal with two orthogonal polarization states is generated. Leading the polarization multiplexing optical signal to a polarizer with a specific principal axis, the low-order optical components of the signal are cancelled each other, while two high-order sidebands with a wavelength spacing of eight, twelve or sixteen times the frequency of the RF signal reserved. After that, a Sagnac loop is used to make the two sidebands separated and combined with orthogonal polarization states. The proposed approach features large wavelength spacing and good tunability for the generated optical signal. An experiment is performed. The generation of an orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength optical signal with wavelength spacing at 32, 80 and 91.2 GHz is verified by using an RF signal with frequency at 4, 10 and 11.4 GHz.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation of China (61571461, 61401502, 61422108, 61527820), the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB315705), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
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Li, X., Zhao, S., Pan, S. et al. Generation of an orthogonally polarized dual-wavelength optical signal with large wavelength-spacing tunability by using an integrated modulator and a Sagnac loop. Opt Quant Electron 49, 364 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-017-1185-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-017-1185-2