A Phase-Retrieving Coherent Receiver Based on Two-Dimensional Photodetector Array

To achieve an ultra-compact and flexible coherent transceiver solution, a carrier-less coherent detection technique using a two-dimensional (2-D) photodetector array (PDA) is proposed based on the idea of phase retrieval (PR). In the proposed PR-based coherent receiver, the optical phase information is digitally reconstructed from multiple intensity-only measurements acquired by arrayed photodetectors; neither local light sources, optical hybrids, nor spatial demultiplexers are needed. We develop a robust and low-complexity PR algorithm, which exploits prior knowledge on the optical modulation format, for the proposed PR receiver. As a proof-of-concept, the coherent detection of 10-Gbaud optical phase-modulated signals, including QPSK, 16-QAM, coherent optical OFDM, and polarization-multiplexed QPSK signals, using only a 2-D PDA is demonstrated experimentally.