On-chip Brillouin purification for frequency comb-based coherent optical communications

In this Letter, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we harness on-chip Brillouin scattering for narrowband amplification and spectral purification of frequency comb lines for coherent optical communications. A parametrically generated optical frequency comb with a low carrier-to-noise power ratio was filtered through narrowband Brillouin amplification utilizing the same comb as the optical pump. This was achieved on a photonic chip to enable successful transmission of an advanced modulation format signal: 64-level quadrature amplitude modulation. 96 Gb/s data were modulated on two polarizations on multiple comb lines across 1532.9–1557.5 nm, demonstrating the scalability of this concept for operation in wavelength division multiplexing applications. The small form factor of the photonic chip reduces the polarization drifts when compared to optical fibers and paves the way for photonic integration.