All-optical clock recovery of NRZ data at 40 Gbit/s using Fabry–Perot filter and two-section gain-coupled DFB laser

All-optical clock recovery from 40 Gbit/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) data has been experimentally demonstrated by using a fibre-pigtailed Fabry–Perot filter and a self-pulsing two-section gain-coupled distributed feedback laser. The recovered clock has a measured root-mean-square (RMS) timing jitter of 1.2 ps. Error-free performance has been achieved in back-to-back bit error ratio (BER) tests using the optically recovered clock.