Optical OFDM signal generation using integrated-optic multiplexer based on optical IFFT

摘要

We demonstrate an integrated-optic device for multiplexing an OFDM signal based on optical IFFT. The silica waveguide-based multiplexer is composed of four inputs followed by mutually connected directional couplers, an array of delay lines, and a combiner. Four signals modulated with different sequences of data are fed into the multiplexer, and an optical OFDM signal is generated through the IFFT process directly in the optical domain. We report the configuration, operating principle, and experimental results to indicate that the multiplexer operates properly. We successfully generated 40 and 80 Gbit/s OFDM signals with the multiplexer.