Abstract
Real-time polarization controllers arc vital for the deployment of all-optical switching, wavelength conversion, add-drop multiplexing, and PMD compensation etc. in WDM networks. Current polarization controllers typically consist of a state-of-polarization (SOP) characterization unit, a polarization rotating unit, and a feedback control. The polarization rotation unit can be implemented by a faraday rotator,1 liquid crystal waveplate,2 MEMS,3 or LiNbO3 waveguide4 etc. These devices, however, cannot control signal with rapidly varying SOP because the feedback control time scale is in nanoseconds. In this paper, we proposed and demonstrated an all-optical polarization controller based on a mutual-injection-locked laser diode (MILD). The MILD controls the SOP of the incoming signal not by rotating its SOP but by acting as an intensity compensating polarizer.
© 2002 Optical Society of America
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