All-optical modulation and demultiplexing systems with significant timing jitter tolerance through incorporation of pulse-shaping fiber Bragg gratings

In this letter, we demonstrate the use of a superstructured fiber Bragg grating to preshape optical pulses to obtain more optimal operation of nonlinear all-optical switches. Specifically, we demonstrate the conversion of 2.5-ps soliton pulses into 20-ps rectangular pulses at the input to both fiber and semiconductor optical amplifier-based switches, and show that rectangular switching windows can be achieved thereby providing a 5-10-fold reduction in timing jitter sensitivity. Errorfree penaltyfree optical time-division-multiplexing switching was readily achieved over a ±7-ps timing mismatch range for the square pulse driven fiber nonlinear optical loop mirror switch versus a ±1-ps range for the switch driven directly with the 2.5-ps laser pulses.