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4:30pm 4:45pm

ULTRA-FAST CLOCK RECOVERY BY ALL-OPTICAL PLL

Claudio P o d (l),Paolo Ghelfi (2). Filippo Ponzini (2). Antonella Bogoni (2), and Luca Poll (2)
1 : Scuola Superiore S.Anna, Via Cisanello 145.1-56126 Pisa, Italy.
Tel. +39 05D 9719032e-mail: daudio.Dorzi@cnit.it
2 :CNlT Photonic Networks Nat'l Lab, Via Cisanello 145,1-56124 Pisa, Italy.
Tel. +39 050 9718020,Fax. +39 050 9719033,e-mail: luca.poti@cnil.it. antonella.bwoni@Z?cnit.il

Absbact An ell Optical Phase-Locked Loop (OPLL) composed by an Optical Voltage-Controlled Oscillator
(OVCO), and an ultra-fast Optical Phase-Comparator (OPC) is presented. 70 GHz pre-scaled clock extraction
from a 40 GHz multiplexed signal is demonstrated.

Introduction Opc

Synchronization to an high qualii pre-scaled dock

signal is required in Optical Time Division Multiplexed
(OTDM) systems to realize channel exiraction.
addldrop functionalities. and data regeneration. If an
ultra-fast Optical Phase Comparator ( O K ) is used, a
Phase Locked Loop (PLL) based technique can
,.-.- ~ j
i
provide a baseline dock signal from a multiplexed
aggregate data stream, even at very high data rates
(beyond 100 GbiVs) 111, 121. In the cited schemes. the
etmr signal generated by the OPC is used to feed an
Flg. 1 All Optical PLL experimental setup. Solid and dashed
electric Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO). which, in lines represent o p t i d and electrical path respechly.
tums. drives a modelocked laser, or a gain-switched
laser to produce the optical clock. It should be noted The generated FWM field is selected by an optical
that, in the case of a mode-locked laser, both tracking filter, then delivered to one input of a low bandwidth
and acquisition loop perfmanoes could be limited by Balanced PhotdJetector (BPD). An anenuated
the frequency offset between the laser spectral range replica of the original signal is given to the Omer BPD
and the VCO driving frequency. On the other hand, input, with the twofold effect of obtaining a bipolar
using a gain switched laser, clock pulse quality may error signal and canoeling common noise arising from
not be sufficiently high as required in OTDM signal jitter. After being low-pass filtered the etmr
netwoW unless chirp compensation andlor pulse signal a& on the CLC input of the OVCO. which is
compression is exploited. represented with more detail in Fig. 2.
We already demonstrated the possibility to produce
high quality, short optical pulses, by using an Optical
Voltage Controlled Oscillator (OVCO), based on a
Regenerative Mode Locked Fiber Laser (RMLFL).
which is able to adjust its free spectral range through
a Cavity Length Contml (CLC) input 131. The OVCO,
hence, automatically maintains the locking condition
between cavity modes, continuously providing high
quality pulses. We hence utilized the OVCO as the
local oscillator in the optical PLL. To perform phase
comparison, we exploited highly nondegenerate Four- C--lbW n-
Wave-Mixing (FWM) in a Semiconductor Optical Fig. 2 OVCO expatimental satup.
Amplifier (SOA). By using this scheme, we obtained
timing synchronization between a 40 GHz incoming It consists of a RMLFL with a Piezoelectric Delay Line
signal and a 10 GHz dock. The same scheme can be (PDL) inside the fiber cavity. All the devices are
successfully used at higher data rates (=+lODGbitls) polarization maintaining. By means of the CLC input,
thanks to !he effedveness of the ultrafast acting on the PDL, the frequency of the RMLFL
nonlinearities involved in the OPC. output pulses can be varied. However, thanks to the
regenerative feedback, the intra-cavity modulator
Operatlon principle and experimental setup driving frequency is always equal to an integer
The experimental setup of the proposed scheme is multiple of the cavity free spectral range, assuring the
shown in Fig. 1. Clock pulses are mixed together with source to be mode-locked over its whole tuning
signal pulses, through an optical coupler, in the SOA. range.

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Fig. 3 (a) SOA output s w u m , and (b) Open-Lwp BPD
OutDut
- variations. By integrating the measured phase noise
iz
20 pldiv
Fig. 4 (a) 40 GHz input signal, (b) 10 GHz extracted clock,
and (c) both signal and dock measured using the same
higger.
Note that an elecbic clock output is also available
from the feedback line in the OVCO. When the loop is
locked. BPD gives a DC voltage, whose magnitude is
proportional to phase mismatch between the two
pulse trains. In Fig. 3 are reported (a) the SOA output
s p e d and (b) the BPD output when the loop is
open (i.e. the error signal is disconnected from the
OVCO), for a frequency ofket of about 12 KHz
between the clock and baseline signal rate.
Experiment resutts and dlscusslon
The 40 GHz signal is obtained, through a 4x1 optical
multiplexer, from an harmonic mode-locked fiber
laser, whose driving RF source is set close to 10
GHz. Signal pulse central wavelength is 1566 nm.
while clock pulses are at 1557.7 nm. In this way, the
optical detuning between the two signals is much
above the carrier density modulation wt-off frequency
(-100 GHz) in the SOA, and FWM light generation is
only due to non-linear gain effect, involving basically
two physical mechanisms, whose response times are
few tens and hundreds of fs, respectively 14). Hence.
the FWM-based OPC is able to process signals up to
hundreds of GHz. Figg. 4 (a), (b) and (c) show
osciiloscope traces of 40 GHz input signal, 10 GHz
extraded clock, and both the signals measured using
the same trigger when the loop is closed. Signal and
clock pulsewidth (full width half maximum) is 6 ps and
8 ps. respectively, and the corresponding average
powers at the SOA input are as low as -1.5 dBm and
2 dBm. respectively. The hold-in range is set by the
387
tuning range of the OVCO (measured to be 350 Wz),
once the active filter is dimensioned to provide the
necessaty DC gain. The active filter sets also the loop
natural frequency and the dumping factor, through the
capadtance and the two resistors, to avoid loop
instability. Fig. 5 shows the normalized electrical
power spectra of the OVCO feedback signal, in
locked and unlocked conditions, measured with a
resolution bandwidth of 30 Hz. It is dear from the
figure the strong noise reduction in locked condition
with respect to free running case, in which the source
has no external tixed frequency reference and the
driving feedback signal continuosly track cavity
power spectrum over a bandwidth of 10 KHz we
evaluated a limingjitter of540fs in the locked CO
ndition.
offm frcqnrncy (ImZ)
Fig. 5 Nonaiized electrical power spedra in tlm locked
(solid line) and unlocked (dashed line) conditions.
Conclusions
We recovered a 10 GUz pre-scaled dock from a 40
GHz multiplexed signal, in an all optical PLL scheme.
As a nwelty we exploited a voltage controlled pulse
generator, based on a RMLFL, which always
produces high quality pulses, as lhe clock generator,
improving loop acquisition and hold in range with
resped to other similar schemes. Data repetition rate
is only limited by the multiplexing fador in the
experiment, since the ultra-fast nonlinear pmcess.
responsible for optical phase detection. is supposed
to allow dock synchronization with data over
hundreds of Gbtls. Operation with modulated data
should follow directly. The error signal is indeed
expected to be independent from data paltem, being
the loop filter bandwidth much more smaller than
typical data repetition rates.
References
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4 J. Zhou el al., IEEE Photn. Techn. Lett., vol 6 (i994). pp
5C-52
5 F. M. Gardner. Phase Lock Techniques. (1979). John
Wiiey and Sons