Ultrashort optical pulse transmission characteristics of vertically coupled microring resonator add/drop filter

The ultrashort optical pulse transmission characteristics of a vertically coupled microring resonator (VCMRR) filter were measured at 1.55 /spl mu/m wavelength, and the transmission capacity per channel was evaluated. The pulsewidth at the output was measured to be 3.4 ps, when 1.2 ps input pulse with a sech pulse shape from a fiber laser was incident on the microring resonator filter with a fullwidth at half-maximum (FWHM) of 0.75 nm (94 GHz). From this result, the maximum transmission capacity of the filter was estimated to be approximately 50 Gb/s. The pulse broadening through the filter was theoretically analyzed, and it was confirmed that the pulse broadening evaluated from the bandwidth of the filter spectrum response were in good agreement with the measured results.