Collaborative Research: Mathematical and Engineering Study of Multi-Channel All-Optical Regenerator

我们提出了一项合作研究计划，设计和制造一种新型器件-具有2R（再放大和重塑）能力的多通道全光再生器。到目前为止，许多波分复用信道的同时全光再生仍然是一个巨大的挑战，因为全光再生器的运行从根本上依赖于强非线性光效应，导致信道之间的相互作用减弱。在提出的多通道再生器中，我们采用了一种色散映射，该色散映射结合了高正交色散非线性光纤和具有频谱周期群延迟的色散补偿器。这样的映射减少了有害的通道间非线性相互作用，同时将有益的通道内效应的强度保持在适当的水平。从数学的角度来看，该装置需要发展一种具有周期性色散补偿的调制稳定光纤中强脉冲传播的新理论。这种传播发生在一个参数区，它不同于已经得到充分研究的小恒定色散光纤中的强脉冲传播和传输系统中色散管理的孤子传播。我们的理论结果将有助于设计实验装置原型。所提出的多通道2R再生器的实现将使现代光纤通信网络中使用的大量昂贵的光-电-光转换器得以消除。用光再生器取代这些转换器将使光通信带宽大大降低。

We propose a collaborative research program to design and build a novel device - a multi-channel all-optical regenerator with a 2R (reamplification and reshaping) capability. Until now, simultaneous all-optical regeneration of many wavelength-division multiplexed channels has remained a formidable challenge, because the operation of all-optical regenerators fundamentally relies on strong nonlinear optical effects that lead to debilitating interaction among the channels. In the proposed multi-channel regenerator, we employ a dispersion map that combines sections of high-normal-dispersion nonlinear fiber and dispersion compensators with a spectrally periodic group delay. Such a map reduces the detrimental inter-channel nonlinear interaction while maintaining the intensity of the beneficial intra-channel effects at a proper level. From the mathematical standpoint, the proposed device requires the development of a novel theory of the intense pulse propagation in a modulationally stable fiber with periodic dispersion compensation. This propagation occurs in a parameter regime that is different from the well-researched regimes of both the intense pulse propagation in fibers with small constant dispersion and the dispersion-managed soliton propagation in ransmission systems. Our theoretical results will assist in designing an experimental device prototype.The realization of the proposed multi-channel 2R regenerator will enable elimination of a large number of expensive optical-to-electrical-to-optical converters employed in modern fiber-optical communication networks. The replacement of these converters by optical regenerators will make the optical communication bandwidth significantly more affordable.