Abstract:
We experimentally present thefirst reported integrated cross-modulatedforward Raman pump, with
low-cost, power-efficient VCSELs. A single-mode VCSEL is directly modulated with 8.5 Gbps data and
transmitted over a 50.7 km SMF-Reach fibre. Exploiting the 6.9 dB flat-gain of a forward Raman pump,
an error-free transmission is experimentally achieved. Network efficiency is maximized by modulating the forward Raman pump with 8.5 Gbps data and transferred over the fibre link. To the best of our
knowledge, it is the first time a forward Raman pump is utilized for simultaneous data amplification
and transmission. Inherent VCSEL frequency chirping leads to an error-flow over a 50.7 km fibre link.
With unmodulated forward Raman pump, a transmission penalty of 0.83 dB is incurred. However,
modulated forward Raman pump results in a crosstalk penalty of 0.47 dB over the transmission link.
This work offers a novel enabling technique for simultaneous network capacity, efficiency and reach
optimization for next-generation optical interconnects.
