∝-type tunable all-optical delay line on flat broadened spectrum

According to the requirements of all optical networks and high speed optical time division multiplex systems for the time delay adjustment, a novel tunable ∝-type delay line is proposed based on the optical fiber nonlinear effect. The delay line is consist of some all-fiber-type devices, such as special optical fibers, optical fiber gratings, and optical fiber amplifiers. On the self-phase modulation, group-velocity dispersion effect and the light splitting effect, the delay line obtains the flat broadened spectrum with an approximate linear time delay and implements the time delay control with the help of a tunable optical fiber grating. Moreover, it converts the operation wavelength in a certain range under the control. The numerical evolution results of single picosecond pulse indicate that the delay has been up to 300 ps in the wavelength range of 10 nm, and the maximum output Q value up to 23.6 in one 40 Gbps at the simulation experiment system. These experiment results show that the all-optical delay line gets better time delay properties under maintaining a good pulse output(Bit Error Ratio (BER)≪10-12) and satisfies the requirements of all optical networks and high speed optical time division multiplex systems. © 2016, Science Press. All right reserved.