Light-by-Light polarization control of 10-Gbit/s RZ and NRZ telecommunication signals

Julien Fatome (1) , Philippe Morin (2) , Stéphane Pitois (2) , Guy Millot (2)

1 SLCO
2 ICB - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne

Controlling the state of polarization of a light beam propagating in a standard single mode fiber by means of a lossless and instantaneous interaction is a fundamental effect of great interest for telecommunication applications and all-optical signal processing. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate light-by-light polarization control via a nonlinear interaction occurring in single mode optical fiber between a signal wave and a counter-propagating control pump beam. We observe a polarization attraction and stabilization of a 10-Gbit/s optical telecommunication signal around 1550 nm for either RZ or NRZ modulation format. These experimental results confirm yet another fascinating possibility to all-optical control the light properties in optical fiber.

Mots clés: Nonlinear optics; optical fiber; polarization control; signal processing

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Julien Fatome, Philippe Morin, Stéphane Pitois, Guy Millot. Light-by-Light polarization control of 10-Gbit/s RZ and NRZ telecommunication signals. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2011, pp.1-8. ⟨10.1109/JSTQE.2011.2119467⟩. ⟨hal-00639034⟩