High-quality amplitude jitter reduction and extinction enhancement using a power-symmetric NOLM and a polarizer.

Four procedures for simultaneous high-quality amplitude jitter reduction and extinction ratio enhancement of optical data streams are presented and studied using numerical simulations. They all rely on the use of a power-balanced NOLM, optionally followed by a polarizer. The setup can be operated in various regimes, leading to several switching characteristics with different merits in the frame of the proposed application. These are discussed and compared with the results obtained using other NOLM configurations.