• ETRI Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.312-318
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• 2005

Mid-span spectral inversion (MSSI) has to utilize high optical pump power, for its operation principle is based on a nonlinear optical wavelength conversion. In this paper, a low pump-power operation of MSSI-based chromatic dispersion compensation (CDC) has been achieved successfully, for the first time to our knowledge, by introducing a noise pre-reduction scheme in cascaded wavelength conversions with periodically poled $LiNbO_3$ waveguides at a relatively low operation temperature. As preliminary studies, phase-matching properties and operation-temperature dependence of the wavelength converter (WC) were characterized. The WC pumped at 1549 nm exhibited a wide conversion bandwidth of 59 nm covering the entire C-band and a conversion efficiency of -23.6 dB at 11 dBm pump power. CDC experiments were implemented with 2.5 and 10 Gb/s transmission systems over 100 km single-mode fiber. Although it is well-known that the signal distortion due to chromatic dispersion is not critical at a 2.5 Gb/s transmission, the clear recovery of eye patterns was identified. At 10 Gb/s transmission experiments, eye patterns were retrieved distinctly from seriously distorted ones, and notable improvements in bit-error rates were acquired at a low pump power of 14 dBm.