THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF THE OPTICAL CURRENT-CONTROLLED OSCILLATOR AND ITS APPLICATIONS FOR SUBCARRIER OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS

The optical current-controlled oscillator (CCO) is an all-optical devi ce capable of producing frequency-tunable intensity oscillations (subc arriers) on an optical carrier without any active radio frequency/micr owave components. From a dynamic point of view, the CCO is a nonlinear optical system supporting the Hopf bifurcation and operating in the p eriodic orbit regime. This article presents the theoretical foundation for the optical CCO and its applications in optical communications in volving subcarriers. Using one embodiment of the optical CCO employing a two-section Fabry-Perot laser diode, we present the static and modu lation characteristics of the periodic-orbit subcarrier of the optical CCO. The performance of CCO-based all-optical subcarrier optical comm unication system is estimated using representative device parameters. The relationship between the capacity of CCO-based communication netwo rks and the frequency-tuning range of the CCO is also established. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(98)05711-9]