Microsphere-Based Optical Frequency Comb Generator for 200 GHz Spaced WDM Data Transmission System
Elena A. Anashkina, Maria P. Marisova, Alexey V. Andrianov, Р. А. Ахмеджанов, Rihards Mūrnieks, M. D. Tokman, Laura Skladova, Ivan Oladyshkin, Toms Salgals, Ilya Lyashuk, А.А. Сорокин, Sandis Spolītis, Gerd Leuchs, Vjačeslavs Bobrovs
Abstract
Optical frequency comb (OFC) generators based on whispering gallery mode (WGM) microresonators have a massive potential to ensure spectral and energy efficiency in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) telecommunication systems. The use of silica microspheres for telecommunication applications has hardly been studied but could be promising. We propose, investigate, and optimize numerically a simple design of a silica microsphere-based OFC generator in the C-band with a free spectral range of 200 GHz and simulate its implementation to provide 4-channel 200 GHz spaced WDM data transmission system. We calculate microsphere characteristics such as WGM eigenfrequencies, dispersion, nonlinear Kerr coefficient with allowance for thermo-optical effects, and simulate OFC generation in the regime of a stable dissipative Kerr soliton. We show that by employing generated OFC lines as optical carriers for WDM data transmission, it is possible to ensure error-free data transmission with a bit error rate (BER) of 4.5 × 10−30, providing a total of 40 Gbit/s of transmission speed on four channels.