Optical equalization of polarization dispersion

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Abstract
In this paper, we describe a demonstration of the optical equalization of polarization dispersion in direct-detection lightwave systems. We use a polarization controller to adjust the polarization into a fiber to one of the principal states of polarization of the fiber, which eliminates first-order polarization dispersion. Results for a 2.5 Gbps, externally modulated system with a fiber with 120 ps rms of polarization dispersion, show that by using the equalizer we maintain a 10-9 BER, while without the technique the BER varies with time from 10-5 to 10-9. At 10 Gbps, the equalizer allows reliable bit detection even though the eye is closed without equalization, demonstrating an order of magnitude increase in the dispersion-limited B2L product, in agreement with our analytical and computer simulation results. We also describe a demonstration of the technique at the receiver, and show how to implement an adaptive polarization controller to continuously track the principal states using a gradient search algorithm. This technique provides bit-rate-independent equalization of first-order polarization dispersion.

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