Demonstration of error-free 25Gb/s duobinary transmission using a colourless reflective integrated modulator

To realise novel, low-cost, photonic technologies that can support 100Gb/s Ethernet in next-generation dense wavelength-division-multiplexed metro transport networks, we are developing arrayed photonic integrated circuits that leverage colourless reflective modulators. Here, we demonstrate a single-channel, hybrid reflective electroabsorption modulator-based device, showing error-free 25.3Gb/s duobinary transmission with bit-error rates less than 1 × 10−12 over 35km of standard single-mode fibre. We further confirm the modulator’s colourless operation over the ITU C-band, with a 1.2dB variation in required optical signal-to-noise ratio over this wavelength range.