PICOSECOND-ACCURACY ALL-OPTICAL BIT PHASE SENSING USING A NONLINEAR-OPTICAL LOOP MIRROR

We demonstrate picosecond-accuracy bit phase comparison using a nonlin ear optical loop mirror, We use this all-optical bit phase comparator to synchronize an external cavity modelocked diode laser operating at 10-GHz to a soliton compression source operating at 40-GHz using an el ectrooptic phase lock loop. We believe this is the first demonstration of soliton compression source synchronization. The holding range of t he phase lock loop is +/-20 MHz, and is limited by the modelocking ban dwidth of the external cavity laser, Clock acquisition time is dominat ed by the latency of the nonlinear optical loop mirror.