All-Optical Clock Recovery for 40-Gb/s MZM-Generated NRZ-DPSK Signals Using a Self-Pulsating DBR Laser

All-optical clock recovery for the nonreturn-to-zero differential phase-shift-keying (NRZ-DPSK) modulation format is demonstrated experimentally at 40 Gb/s using a self-pulsating distributed Bragg reflector laser. The use of a Mach-Zehnder modulator to generate the NRZ-DPSK signal yields a modulated signal spectrum with a weak clock tone. The self-pulsating laser is able to directly recover a clock signal with a root-mean-square timing jitter of 760 fs and an extinction ratio of 13 dB; a preprocessing stage to enhance the clock tone is not required. The timing jitter of the recovered clock signal is characterized for different values of the input signal optical signal-to-noise ratio and for varying amounts of waveform distortion due to polarization-mode dispersion.