50 Gb/s NRZ and 4-PAM data transmission over OM5 fiber in the SWDM wavelength range

The development of advanced OM5 wideband multimode fiber (WBMMF) allowing high modal bandwidth in the spectral range 840-950 nm motivates research in vertical-cavity-surface-emitting-lasers (VCSELs) at wavelengths beyond the previously accepted for short reach communications. Thus, short wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) solutions can be implemented as a strategy to satisfy the increasing demand of data rate in datacenter environments. As an alternative solution to 850 nm parallel links, four wavelengths with 30 nm separation between 850 nm and 940 nm can be multiplexed on a single OM5-MMF, so the number of fibers deployed is reduced by a factor of four. In this paper high speed transmission is studied for VCSELs in the 850 nm – 950 nm range. The devices had a modulating bandwidth of ~26-28 GHz. 50 Gb/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) operation is demonstrated at each wavelength without preemphasis and equalization, with bit-error-rate (BER) below 7% forward error correction (FEC) threshold. Furthermore, the use of single-mode VCSELs (SM-VCSELs) as a way to mitigate the effects of chromatic dispersions in order to extend the maximum transmission distance over OM5 is explored. Analysis of loss as a function of wavelength in OM5 fiber is also performed. Significant decrease is observed, from 2.2 dB/km to less than 1.7 dB/km at 910 nm wavelength of the VCSEL.