DEMULTIPLEXED DETECTION OF ULTRAFAST OPTICAL SIGNAL USING INTERFEROMETRIC CROSS-CORRELATION TECHNIQUE

A novel demultiplexing method using the interferometric cross-correlat ive technique is described and experimentally demonstrated for detecti ng ultrahigh-speed optical signals, In the proposed technique, cross c orrelation between the local pulse is observed through the first-order mixing of lightwaves to detect the existence of signal pulses, The on ly factor limiting the bit rate is the pulse width of the local oscill ator's light: the responses of all other phenomena including detector' s electrical circuits do not affect the maximum signal detection speed , Several characteristic of the detection method are clarified through the theoretical investigation, In an experiment, the demultiplexed de tection of a 25 Gb/s pulse train is successfully demonstrated, for the first time to the author's knowledge, using the proposed method.