Bidirectional UWB over fiber for WDM-PON system.

A novel bidirectional ultra-wideband over-fiber (UWBoF) system compatible with the wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) architecture is presented. In the proposed scheme, a 6th order Gaussian derivative is generated for UWB transmission in a downstream (DS) scenario, based on the directly modulated laser, accumulative chromatic dispersion in the transmission fiber and delay-line-interferometer (DLI). While the UWB signal is received from one of the DLI outputs, the other output is utilized to reuse the wavelength by injection locking a colorless Fabry-Perot laser diode (FP-LD). Due to the filtering effect of the FP-LD, a clear optical carrier without intensity modulation is then generated which can be used for upstream (US) baseband (BB) transmission by directly modulating the FP-LD. In order to eliminate the unwanted Rayleigh scattering induced noise in the bidirectional transmission, a dual - fiber transmission architecture is used. The principle of operation is explained. A symmetric transmission of 1.25 Gbps UWB over 60 km single mode fiber (SMF) is performed. Bit-error-rate (BER) measurements and eye diagrams for both down and upstream transmissions are presented.

Simultaneous wavelength and orbital angular momentum demultiplexing using tunable MEMS-based Fabry-Perot filter.

In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate simultaneous wavelength and orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing/demultiplexing of 10 Gbit/s data streams using a new on-chip micro-component-tunable MEMS-based Fabry-Perot filter integrated with a spiral phase plate. In the experiment, two wavelengths, each of them carrying two channels with zero and nonzero OAMs, form four independent information channels. In case of spacing between wavelength channels of 0.8 nm and intensity modulation, power penalties relative to the transmission of one channel do not exceed 1.45, 0.79 and 0.46 dB at the hard-decision forward-error correction (HD-FEC) bit-error-rate (BER) limit 3.8 × 10-3 when multiplexing a Gaussian beam and OAM beams of azimuthal orders 1, 2 and 3 respectively. In case of phase modulation, power penalties do not exceed 1.77, 0.54 and 0.79 dB respectively. At the 0.4 nm wavelength grid, maximum power penalties at the HD-FEC BER threshold relative to the 0.8 nm wavelength spacing read 0.83, 0.84 and 1.15 dB when multiplexing a Gaussian beam and OAM beams of 1st, 2nd and 3rd orders respectively. The novelty and impact of the proposed filter design is in providing practical, integrable, cheap, and reliable transformation of OAM states simultaneously with the selection of a particular wavelength in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). The proposed on-chip device can be useful in future high-capacity optical communications with spatial- and wavelength-division multiplexing, especially for short-range communication links and optical interconnects.

TDM-PON compatible generation of 10 Gbps NRZ and 1.25 Gbps UWB signals by a single light source.

A novel and cost-efficient technique is presented to generate non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and ultra-wideband (UWB) signals in different time slots of time division multiplexing-passive optical network (TDM-PON) by using a single chirped controlled semiconductor laser associated with an optical bandpass filter. In this technique, the chirp of the laser is controlled by different bias burst amplitudes (BBA) for different time slots. Through the proper selection of the burst amplitudes, 10 Gbps NRZ and 1.25 Gbps UWB signals are generated in different time slots. Principle of operation is discussed, the complete chirp behavior of the laser is experimentally investigated, data transmission of the generated signals is demonstrated and bit-error-rate (BER) level of 10-9 is achieved.

Far-field, linewidth and thermal characteristics of a high-speed 1550-nm MEMS tunable VCSEL.

We report an electrically pumped 1550 nm MEMS tunable VCSEL with a continuous tuning of 101 nm at 22 °C. The top MEMS-DBR with built-in stress gradient within the dielectric layers is deposited in a low-temperature PECVD chamber on an InP-based half-VCSEL, structured by surface-micromachining and electrothermally actuated for continuous wavelength tuning. With 2.6 mA threshold current, the laser shows maximum CW output power of 3.2 mW at 1560 nm. The MEMS-VCSEL operates in single-mode with SMSR > 39 dB across the entire tuning range. At 36 °C, the tuning range reaches up to 107 nm. The divergence angle of the MEMS-VCSEL is approximately 5.6° for all tuning wavelengths. The intrinsic linewidth of an unpackaged device is 21 MHz. Quasi-error-free operation at 12.5 Gbps using a directly modulated MEMS-VCSEL is reported for a record 60 nm tuning, showing the potential of the so-called colorless source in WDM applications.

Wavelength-selective orbital-angular-momentum beam generation using MEMS tunable Fabry-Perot filter.

We demonstrate an on-chip device capable of wavelength-selective generation of vortex beams, which is realized by a spiral phase plate integrated onto a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) tunable filter. This vortex MEMS filter, being capable of functioning simultaneously in both wavelength and orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) domains at the 1550 nm wavelength regime, is considered as a compact, robust, and cost-effective solution for simultaneous OAM- and wavelength-division multiplexed optical communications. The experimental OAM spectra for azimuthal orders 1, 2, and 3 show an OAM state purity >92% across a wavelength range of more than 30 nm.

Widely tunable telecom MEMS-VCSEL for terahertz photomixing.

We report frequency-tunable terahertz (THz) generation with a photomixer driven by an ultra-broadband tunable micro-electro-mechanical system vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (MEMS-VCSEL) and a fixed-wavelength VCSEL, as well as a tunable MEMS-VCSEL mixed with a distributed feedback (DFB) diode. A total frequency span of 3.4 THz is covered in direct detection mode and 3.23 THz in the homodyne mode. The tuning range is solely limited by the dynamic range of the photomixers and the Schottky diode/photoconductor used in the experiment.

Design of DPSS based fiber bragg gratings and their application in all-optical encryption, OCDMA, optical steganography, and orthogonal-division multiplexing.

The future information infrastructure will be affected by limited bandwidth of optical networks, high energy consumption, heterogeneity of network segments, and security issues. As a solution to all problems, we advocate the use of both electrical basis functions (orthogonal prolate spheroidal basis functions) and optical basis functions, implemented as FBGs with orthogonal impulse response in addition to spatial modes. We design the Bragg gratings with orthogonal impulse responses by means of discrete layer peeling algorithm. The target impulse responses belong to the class of discrete prolate spheroidal sequences, which are mutually orthogonal regardless of the sequence order, while occupying the fixed bandwidth. We then design the corresponding encoders and decoders suitable for all-optical encryption, optical CDMA, optical steganography, and orthogonal-division multiplexing (ODM). Finally, we propose the spectral multiplexing-ODM-spatial multiplexing scheme enabling beyond 10 Pb/s serial optical transport networks.

Direct DPSK modulation of chirp-managed laser as cost-effective downstream transmitter for symmetrical 10-Gbit/s WDM PONs.

This paper proposes the use of chirp-managed lasers (CML) as cost-effective downstream (DS) transmitters for next generation access networks. As the laser bandwidth is as high as 10 GHz, the CML could be directly modulated at 10 Gbit/s for downstream transmission in future wavelength division multiplexing passive optical networks (WDM PON). The laser adiabatic chirp, which is the main drawback limiting the transmission performance of directly modulated lasers, is now utilized to generate phase-shift keying (PSK) modulation format by direct modulation. At the user premise, the wavelength reuse technique based on reflective colorless upstream transmitter is applied. The optical network unit (ONU) reflects and orthogonally remodulates the received light with upstream data. A full-duplex transmission with symmetrical 10-Gbit/s bandwidth is demonstrated. Bit-error-rate measurement showed that optical power budgets of 29 dB at BER of 10(-9) or of 36 dB at BER of 10(-3) could be obtained with direct phase-shift-keying modulation of CML which proves that the proposed solution is a viable candidate for future WDM-PONs.

Saturated Collision Amplifier reach extender for XGPON1 and TDM/DWDM PON.

Saturated Collision Amplifier (SCA) is a novel amplification scheme that uses SOA saturation in order to maximize the output power and minimize the ASE noise and the polarization sensitivity. We demonstrate the SCA reach extension in a commercial single-wavelength XGPON1 prototype system where bidirectional optical budget of up to 50 dB is obtained. The traffic performances are compared between the SCA and the conventional SOA extender. The novel extension scheme is demonstrated also for two- and four-wavelength 10 Gbit/s unidirectional downstream configurations with 45 km and 100 km transmission distances with 58-dB maximum total optical budget for each wavelength.

All-optical majority gate based on an injection-locked laser.

An all-optical computer has remained an elusive concept. To construct a practical computing primitive equivalent to an electronic Boolean logic, one should utilize nonlinearity that overcomes weaknesses that plague many optical processing schemes. An advantageous nonlinearity provides a complete set of logic operations and allows cascaded operations without changes in wavelength or in signal encoding format. Here we demonstrate an all-optical majority gate based on a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Using emulated signal coupling, the arrangement provides Bit Error Ratio (BER) of 10-6 at the rate of 1 GHz without changes in the wavelength or in the signal encoding format. Cascaded operation of the injection-locked laser majority gate is simulated on a full adder and a 3-bit ripple-carry adder circuits. Finally, utilizing the spin-flip model semiconductor laser rate equations, we prove that injection-locked lasers may perform normalization operations in the steady-state with an arbitrary linear state of polarization.

Direct Near-Field Observation of Surface Plasmon Polaritons on Silver Nanowires.

Surface plasmon polaritons on (silver) nanowires are promising components for future photonic technologies. Here, we study near-field patterns on silver nanowires with a scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscope that enables the direct mapping of surface waves. We analyze the spatial pattern of the plasmon signatures for different excitation geometries and polarization and observe a plasmon wave pattern that is canted relative to the nanowire axis, which we show is due to a superposition of two different plasmon modes, as supported by electromagnetic simulations including the influence of the substrate. These findings yield new insights into the excitation and propagation of plasmon polaritons for applications in nanoplasmonic devices.