Experimental performance evaluation of quadrature amplitude modulation signal transmission in a silicon microring

We comprehensively characterize the transmission performance of m-ary quadrature amplitude modulation(m-QAM) signals through a silicon microring resonator in the experiment. Using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing based on offset QAM(OFDM/OQAM) which is modulated with m-QAM modulations, we demonstrate low-penalty data transmission of OFDM/OQAM 64-QAM, 128-QAM, 256-QAM, and 512-QAM signals in a silicon microring resonator. The observed optical signal-to-noise ratio(OSNR) penalties are 1.7 dB for 64-QAM,1.7 dB for 128-QAM, and 3.1 dB for 256-QAM at a bit-error rate(BER) of 2 × 10^(-3) and 3.3 dB for 512-QAM at a BER of 2 × 10^(-2). The performance degradation due to the wavelength detuning from the microring resonance is evaluated, showing a wavelength range of ~0.48 nm with BER below 2 × 10^(-3). Moreover, we demonstrate data transmission of 191.2-Gbit/s simultaneous eight wavelength channel OFDM/OQAM 256-QAM signals in a silicon microring resonator, achieving OSNR penalties less than 2 dB at a BER of 2 × 10^(-2).

Evaluation of the performance of linearly frequency modulated signals generated by heterodyning two free-running laser diodes

A method to evaluate the influence of the laser linewidth on the linearly frequency-modulated(LFM)signals generated by heterodyning two free-running laser diodes(LDs)is proposed.The Pearson correlation coefficient between the instantaneous frequency of the generated LFM signal and that of an ideal LFM signal is introduced to quantify the quality of the generated LFM signal.The closed-form solution of the correlation coefficient is given,which shows that the correlation coefficient is determined by the ratio of the LFM signal bandwidth to the square root of the total linewidth of the two LDs when the observation interval is fixed.Simulation results are also given,which proves the correctness of the theoretical results.