Noise and crosstalk analysis of all-optical time division demultiplexers.

Bandwidth limitation of conventional electrical demultiplexer restricts the data capacity of long-haul optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) systems. It is desirable to demultiplex the OTDM signal in optical domain, thereby lifting the bandwidth limitation of the electrical demultiplexer. The general principle of all-optical time division demultiplexing is to effect asymmetric changes to the optical properties of the target and non-target channels. The different optical properties of the target and non-target channels facilitate the separation of the target channel(s) from the aggregate OTDM signal. The change of optical properties of the OTDM signal can be achieved by exploiting various types of nonlinear optics effects, such as cross-phase modulation and four-wave mixing. Although the technical viability of all-optical demultiplexing has been successfully demonstrated in laboratories, there is still a lack of understanding regarding the noise and crosstalk characteristics of all-optical demultiplexers. This PhD study attempts to investigate noise and crosstalk performance of two types of all-optical time division demultiplexers, namely nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) and terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexer (TOAD). In order to evaluate the noise and crosstalk performance of NOLM and TOAD demultiplexers, mathematical models are developed to simulate the transmission window for demultiplexing the target channel. The shape of the transmission window is dependent on the device parameters of the demultiplexers. Varying input parameters of the mathematical models can simulate the effects of changing device parameters on the transmission window. Nevertheless, it is onerous to calculate transmission windows for infinite combinations of device parameters. To simplify the noise and crosstalk analysis, device parameters of NOLM and TOAD demultiplexers are optimised for maximising the peak of the transmission windows. Noise and crosstalk models are also developed forNOLM and TOAD demultiplexers. The optimised device parameters of NOLM and TOAD demultiplexers are fed into the noise and crosstalk models for analysis. Simulation results show that a tradeoff between noise and crosstalk exists for the two types of demultiplexers. Device parameters can be optimised to minimise either noise or crosstalk, but not both. Finally, the noise and crosstalk models are connected to a receiver model, where the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of OTDM systems is evaluated. The BER performances of the NOLM and TOAD demultiplexing are compared using the optimised device parameters. It is found that TOAD has a slightly better BER performance compared with NOLM for lower baseband bit rate (i.e. a larger number of OTDM channels for an aggregate bit rate).