A spectral nonlinear optics time-to-space converter operating in the lightwave communications band is reported for the first time. We demonstrate serial-to-parallel conversion of short frames of femtosecond pulses, for the first time operating at a conversion efficiency level allowing direct electronic readout at a conversion rate of hundreds of megaframes/s in real time, without signal averaging and with good signal-to-noise ratio. The results demonstrate that applications such as real-time measurements of ultrafast optical data sequences and header recognition in ultrafast optical time-division-multiplexed (OTDM) packet networks are approaching feasibility. Moreover, we analyze tradeoffs between optical powers and data rates from a system perspective, which allows us to assess the challenges for scaling to parallel demultiplexing of bit-interleaved OTDM transmission systems.

© 2003 IEEE

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription