Optical time-division multiplexing and demultiplexing in a multigigabit/second fibre transmission system

We demonstrate an optical time-division-multiplexed fibre transmission system using actively mode-locked InGaAsP injection lasers and high-speed Ti:LiNbO3 switch/modulators. Two 2Gbit/s return-to-zero data streams are optically multiplexed to 4Gbit/s, transmitted through 8 km of fibre, optically demultiplexed and detected with low error rate.