Optical communications based on optical polarization multiplexing and demultiplexing

1. A device, comprising:

a polarization beam splitter to receive an optical signal and split the received optical signal into a first beam in a first polarization and a second beam in a polarization orthogonal to the first polarization, wherein the received optical signal carries first and second signal channels via polarization multiplexing and is originally created by combining two optical beams with mutually orthogonal polarizations and unequal amplitudes which are modulated to carry the first and second signal channels, respectively;

a first optical detector to convert the first beam into a first electrical signal;

a second optical detector to convert the second beam into a second electrical signal;

a control circuit to obtain a differential signal representative of a difference between the first and second beams and being a function of a relative angle between a polarization direction of the polarization beam splitter and a polarization in the received optical signal; and

a polarization controller placed in an input optical path of the optical polarization beam splitter and to adjust a polarization of the received optical signal in response to the differential signal to set the difference to be either at a positive maximum or a negative maximum to make the first and second electrical signals represent the two signal channels.

2. The device as in claim 1 , further comprising:

a first optical splitter between the optical polarization beam splitter and the first optical detector to split a fraction of the first beam as a first monitor beam;

a first monitor optical detector to convert the first monitor beam into a first monitor electrical signal representative of the first electrical signal;

a second optical splitter between the optical polarization beam splitter and the second optical detector to split a fraction of the second beam as a second monitor beam; and

a second monitor optical detector to convert the second monitor beam into a second monitor electrical signal representative of the second electrical signal,

wherein the control circuit operates on the first and second monitor electrical signals to generate the differential signal.

3. The device as in claim 1 , wherein the control circuit receives a fraction of the first electrical signal as a first monitor electrical signal, and a fraction of the second electrical signal as a second monitor electrical signal, and wherein the control circuit operates on the first and second monitor electrical signals to generate the differential signal.

4. The device as in claim 3 , further comprising:

a first signal splitter to split DC and low frequency components in the first electrical signal as the first monitor electrical signal; and

a second signal splitter to split DC and low frequency components in the second electrical signal as the second monitor electrical signal.

5. A method, comprising:

splitting a polarization multiplexed optical signal into a first beam and a second beam with mutually orthogonal polarizations, wherein the polarization multiplexed optical signal carries first and second signal channels via polarization multiplexing and is originally created by combining two optical beams with mutually orthogonal polarizations and unequal amplitudes which are modulated to carry the first and second signal channels, respectively;

converting the first beam and the second beam into first and second electrical signals, respectively;

obtaining a difference between the first and second electrical signals as a function of an angle of a state of polarization of one of the two orthogonal polarizations in the received optical signal;

adjusting the state of polarization of the received optical signal prior to the splitting to make the difference between the first and second electrical signals at either a positive maximum or a negative maximum; and

after the difference is set, using one of the first and second electrical signals as one signal channel and another as another signal channel, thus demultiplexing the two signals channels in the received optical signal.

6. The method as in claim 5 , further comprising:

generating a first initial optical beam in a first polarization to carry the first signal channel;

generating a second initial optical beam in a second polarization orthogonal to the first polarization to carry the second signal channel; and

combining the first and second initial optical beams to form the multiplexed optical signal.

7. The method as in claim 6 , further comprising:

directing the multiplexed optical signal through an optical link prior to being split into the first and second beams for demultiplexing the first and second signal channels.

8. The method as in claim 5 , further comprising:

generating two or more other multiplexed optical signals at different optical wavelengths each carrying two polarization multiplexed signal channels;

transmitting the multiplexed optical signals at different wavelengths as a wavelength-division multiplexed signal through a fiber link to a destination;

at the destination, separating the multiplexed optical signals at different wavelengths into separate multiplexed optical signals; and

processing each of separate multiplexed optical signals to demultiplex two signals channels therein.

9. A system, comprising:

an optical transmitter to produce a multiplexed optical signal which carries first and second signal channels via polarization multiplexing;

an optical link to transmit the multiplexed optical signal from the optical transmitter to a destination; and

an optical receiver at the destination to receive and process the multiplexed optical signal to demultiplex the first and second signal channels,

wherein the optical transmitter comprises a first device to generate a first initial optical beam in a first polarization to carry the first signal channel, a second device to generate a second initial optical beam in a first polarization orthogonal to the first polarization to carry the second signal channel, and a third device to combine the first and second initial optical beams to form the multiplexed optical signal, and

wherein the optical receiver comprises:

a polarization beam splitter to receive an optical signal and split the received optical signal into a first beam in a first received polarization and a second beam in a polarization orthogonal to the first received polarization,

a first optical detector to convert the first beam into a first electrical signal,

a second optical detector to convert the second beam into a second electrical signal,

a control circuit to obtain a differential signal representative of a difference between the first and second beams and being a function of a relative angle between a polarization direction of the polarization beam splitter and a polarization in the received optical signal, and

a polarization controller placed in an input optical path of the optical polarization beam splitter and to adjust a polarization of the received optical signal in response to the differential signal to set the difference to be either at a positive maximum or a negative maximum to make the first and second electrical signals represent the two signal channels.

10. The system as in claim 9 , wherein the optical receiver further comprises:

a first optical splitter between the optical polarization beam splitter and the first optical detector to split a fraction of the first beam as a first monitor beam;

a first monitor optical detector to convert the first monitor beam into a first monitor electrical signal representative of the first electrical signal;

a second optical splitter between the optical polarization beam splitter and the second optical detector to split a fraction of the second beam as a second monitor beam; and

a second monitor optical detector to convert the second monitor beam into a second monitor electrical signal representative of the second electrical signal,

wherein the control circuit operates on the first and second monitor electrical signals to generate the differential signal.

11. The system as in claim 9 , wherein the control circuit receives a fraction of the first electrical signal as a first monitor electrical signal, and a fraction of the second electrical signal as a second monitor electrical signal, and wherein the control circuit operates on the first and second monitor electrical signals to generate the differential signal.

12. The device as in claim 11 , wherein the optical receiver further comprises:

a first signal splitter to split DC and low frequency components in the first electrical signal as the first monitor electrical signal; and

a second signal splitter to split DC and low frequency components in the second electrical signal as the second monitor electrical signal.

13. The method as in claim 6 , wherein the first and the second initial optical beams have different amplitudes and optical phases that are independent from each other.

14. The method as in claim 13 , comprising using two different optical transmitters to generate the first and the second initial optical beams.

15. The method as in claim 13 , comprising splitting a common optical beam to generate the first and the second initial optical beams, and scrambling phases of the first and the second initial optical beams with respect to each other.

16. The system as in claim 9 , wherein the optical transmitter is configured to combine a first optical beam modulated to carry the first signal channel and a second optical beam modulated to carry the second signal channel, wherein the first and the second optical beams have orthogonal polarizations, independent phases relative to each other and different optical amplitudes.

17. A method for optically communicating based on polarization division multiplexing, comprising:

generating a first initial optical beam in a first polarization to carry a first signal channel, and a second initial optical beam in a second polarization orthogonal to the first polarization to carry a second signal channel, wherein the first and second initial optical beams have different optical amplitudes and different phases that are independent from each other;

combining the first and second initial optical beams to form a multiplexed optical signal;

transmitting the multiplexed optical signal via an optical transmission media to a destination;

at the destination, using a polarization controller to receive the multiplexed optical signal and to control the polarization of the received multiplexed optical signal;

splitting the multiplexed optical signal output by the polarization controller into a first beam in a first received polarization and a second beam in a polarization orthogonal to the first received polarization;

obtaining a differential signal representative of a difference between optical power levels of the first and second beams; and

controlling the polarization controller to adjust a polarization of the received the multiplexed optical signal in response to the differential signal to set the difference to be either at a positive maximum or a negative to make the first and beams to carry the two signal channels, respectively, thus achieving polarization demultiplexing.

18. The method as in claim 17 , comprising:

using a first optical detector to convert the first beam into a first electrical signal and a second optical detector to convert the second beam into a second electrical signal; and

using the first and second electrical signals to obtain the differential signal.

19. The method as in claim 17 , comprising:

using a first optical splitter to split the first beam into a first optical monitor beam and a first optical signal beam;

using a second optical splitter to split the second beam into a second optical monitor beam and a second optical signal beam;

using the first and second optical monitor beams to obtain the differential signal; and

using the first and second optical signal beams to obtain the first and second signal channels.

20. The method as in claim 17 , wherein the differential signal is obtained from a difference between an averaged optical power level of the first beam and an averaged optical power level of the second beam.