Full quadrature regeneration of QPSK signals using sequential phase sensitive amplification and parametric saturation.

We demonstrate all-optical regeneration of both the phase and the amplitude of a 10 GBaud quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signal using two nonlinear stages. First we regenerate the phase using a wavelength converting phase sensitive amplifier and then we regenerate the amplitude using a saturated single-pump parametric amplifier, returning the signal to its original wavelength at the same time. We exploit the conjugating nature of the two processing stages to eliminate the intrinsic SPM distortion of the system, further improving performance.

Optimisation of amplitude limiters for phase preservation based on the exact solution to degenerate four-wave mixing.

Adopting an exact solution to four-wave mixing (FWM), wherein harmonic evolution is described by the sum of two Bessel functions, we identify two causes of amplitude to phase noise conversion which impair FWM saturation based amplitude regenerators: self-phase modulation (SPM) and Bessel-order mixing (BOM). By increasing the pump to signal power ratio, we may arbitrarily reduce their impact, realising a phase preserving amplitude regenerator. We demonstrate the technique by applying it to the regeneration of a 10 GBaud QPSK signal, achieving a high level of amplitude squeezing with minimal amplitude to phase noise conversion.