Abstract

Optical fiber communication systems with high data rates at 10 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s or above and huge aggregate capacities well above 1 Tb/s on a single optical fiber are trending toward replacement of electronic processing of data streams with optical processing. For example, linear optical amplification has largely replaced electronic amplification and MEMS mirror arrays are replacing large electronic cross-connect switches. Nonlinear optics concepts are also important for optical communications and will be reviewed in this tutorial. Purely optical nonlinear processes including semiconductor optical amplifiers, non-resonant third-order susceptibilities in glasses, organic materials and semiconductors, as well as cascaded second-order nonlinearities will be presented and compared for efficiency, losses and time response.

© 2002 Optical Society of America