Flexible frequency comb generation in a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide enabling optical multicasting

We propose and demonstrate a technique for the generation of a coherent optical comb, with tunable line spacing in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide. A single continuous wave laser is modulated to generate three phase-locked seed lines, which are injected into a PPLN waveguide, to obtain line multiplication. The line spacing is set acting on the frequency of the electrical signal driving the modulator. The quality of the comb is verified measuring the autocorrelation, the phase noise, and the linewidth of the generated lines. With the same scheme, we demonstrate optical multicasting. From a single quadrature phase shift keying signal, modulated at 12.5 and 25 GBaud, five replicas are generated, with spacing 25 and 37.5 GHz. The performance of each signal replica is measured after transmission through 80 km of a single-mode fiber, demonstrating operation with a bit error rate value lower than the forward error correction threshold. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America