Ultra-high bandwidth optical data transmission with a microcomb
Mengxi Tan, Bill Corcoran, Xingyuan Xu, Jiayang Wu, Andreas Boes, Thach G. Nguyen, Sai T. Chu, Brent E. Little, Roberto Morandotti, Arnan Mitchell, David Moss
Abstract
We report record data transmission over standard optical fibre using a single integrated chip source. We demonstrate a line rate of 44.2 Terabits per second (Tb/s) using the telecommunications C-band at 1550nm with a spectral efficiency - a critically important performance metric - of 10.4 bits/s/Hz. We use a new and powerful class of micro-comb called soliton crystals that exhibit robust operation and stable generation as well as a high intrinsic efficiency that, together with an extremely low spacing of 48.9 GHz enables a very high coherent data modulation format of 64 QAM. We demonstrate error free transmission over 75 km of standard optical fibre in the laboratory and a field trial over an installed metropolitan optical fiber network. This work demonstrates the capability of optical micro-combs to out-perform other approaches in demanding and practical optical communications networks.