Field test of quantum key distribution with high key creation efficiency.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises unconditional security for communication. However, the random choices of the measurement basis in QKD usually result in low key creation efficiency. This drawback is overcome in the differential-phase-shift QKD, provided that each photon can be prepared in a large number of time slots with a proper waveform. In this work we develop a miniature room-temperature 1550-nm single-photon source to generate narrowband single photon in 50 time slots with a nearly optimal waveform for achieving unity key creation efficiency. By utilizing these single photons in the field test, we demonstrate the differential-phase-shift QKD with a key creation efficiency of 97%. Our work shows that the practical QKD can benefit from the narrowband single photons with controllable waveforms.

Reducing computation complexity by using elastic net regularization based pruned Volterra equalization in a 80 Gbps PAM-4 signal for inter-data center interconnects.

Volterra equalization (VE) presents substantial performance enhancement for high-speed optical signals but suffers from high computation complexity which limits its physical implementations. To address these limitations, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an elastic net regularization-based pruned Volterra equalization (ENPVE) to reduce the computation complexity while still maintain system performance. Our proposed scheme prunes redundant weight coefficients with a three-phase configuration. Firstly, we pre-train the VE with an adaptive EN-regularizer to identify significant weights. Next, we prune the insignificant weights away. Finally, we retrain the equalizer by fine-tuning the remaining weight coefficients. Our proposed ENPVE achieves superior performance with reduced computation complexity. Compared with conventional VE and L1 regularization-based Volterra equalizer (L1VE), our approach show a complexity reduction of 97.4% and 20.2%, respectively, for an O-band 80-Gbps PAM4 signal at a received optical power of -4 dBm after 40 km SMF transmission.

Ultra-Broadband, High Speed, and High-Quantum-Efficiency Photodetectors Based on Black Phosphorus.

Black phosphorus (BP), a narrow band gap semiconductor without out-of-plane dangling bonds, has shown promise for broadband and integrable photodetector applications. Simultaneously exhibiting high speed and high-efficiency operation, however, remains a critical challenge for current BP-based photodetectors. Here, we demonstrate a photodetector based on the BP-based van der Waals heterostructures. The developed photodetector enables broadband responses in the visible to mid-infrared range with external quantum efficiency ranging from 20 to 52% at room temperature. These results together with noise measurements indicate that the photodetector can detect light in the picowatt range. Furthermore, the demonstrated BP detector has ultrafast rise (1.8 ns) and fall (1.68 ns) times, and its photoresponse exhibits reproducible switching behavior even under consecutive and rapid light intensity modulations (2100 cycles, 200 MHz), as indicated by the eye-diagram measurement. By leveraging these features, we show our BP heterostructures can be configured as a point-like detector in a scanning confocal microscopy, useful for mid-infrared imaging applications.

Doppler-free coherent detection using period-one nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers for OFDM-RoF links.

This study investigates coherent detection that is free from the Doppler frequency shift effect for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing radio-over-fiber (OFDM-RoF) links using period-one (P1) nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers. Even under a dynamically time-varying Doppler frequency shift of up to 100 kHz, corresponding to a relative motion between a transmitter and a receiver with a velocity of more than 3850 km/h at 28 GHz, the microwave carrier of a received OFDM-RoF signal can be successfully regenerated instantaneously and uninterruptedly with its phase highly preserved through the P1 dynamics. No carrier frequency offset (CFO) due to the Doppler frequency shift effect happens if the regenerated microwave carrier is used as a microwave local oscillator for coherent detection of the received OFDM-RoF signal. As a result, a bit-error ratio of around 10-9 is achieved for coherent detection of a 28 GHz OFDM-RoF signal carrying 4 Gb/s 16-quadrature amplitude modulation data. Thus, no digital signal processing, either photonic or electronic, is required to compensate for such a CFO. This all-optical system is capable of operation up to at least 100 GHz.

Photonic microwave carrier recovery using period-one nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers for OFDM-RoF coherent detection.

This study investigates an all-optical scheme based on period-one (P1) nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers, which regenerates the microwave carrier of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing radio-over-fiber (OFDM-RoF) signal and uses it as a microwave local oscillator for coherent detection. Through the injection locking established between the OFDM-RoF signal and the P1 dynamics, frequency synchronization with highly preserved phase quality is inherently achieved between the recovered microwave carrier and the microwave carrier of the OFDM-RoF signal. A bit-error ratio down to 1.9×10-9 is achieved accordingly using the proposed scheme for coherent detection of a 32-GHz OFDM-RoF signal carrying 4 Gb/s 16-quadrature amplitude modulation data. No electronic microwave generators or electronic phase-locked loops are thus required. The proposed system can be operated up to at least 100 GHz and can be self-adapted to certain changes in the operating microwave frequency.

Over 210 Gb/s PDM multiband DDO-OFDM LR-PON downstream with simple self-polarization diversity.

A simple polarization division multiplexed (PDM) multiband direct-detection optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DDO-OFDM) long reach passive optical network (LR-PON) with net data rate over 210 Gb/s on single wavelength channel is proposed and experimentally demonstrated with self-polarization diversity technique. The proposed self-polarization diversity function is realized at a powered remote node with all passive components to achieve cost-effectiveness and simultaneously double both the channel capacity and subscriber numbers. Meanwhile, this architecture retains the simplicity of direct-detection single receiver-end without any hardware or software modification at the optical network units. The measured power penalty of the proposed PDM multiband DDO-OFDM LR-PON is 0.8 dB over 100 km transmission with respect to that of the ordinary single polarization scheme at a specified forward error correction threshold.

An experimental demonstration for carrier reused bidirectional PON system with adaptive modulation DDO-OFDM downstream and QPSK upstream signals.

A light source centralized bidirectional passive optical network (PON) system based on multiband direct-detection optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DDO-OFDM) downstream and quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) upstream is experimentally demonstrated. By introducing a simple optical single-side band (SSB) filter at the optical network unit (ONU), all the desired signal bands will be immune from the deleterious signal-signal beating interference (SSBI) noise with only single-end direct-detection scheme. An adaptive modulation configuration is employed to enhance the entire downstream throughput which results in a 150-Gbps downstream data rate with a single optical carrier. In the upstream direction, by recycling the clean downstream optical carrier, a 12.5 Gb/s QPSK format with coherent receiving mechanism in central office is adopted for better receiving sensitivity and dispersion tolerance. With the power enhancement by the long-reach PON architecture, the downstream splitting ratio can achieve as high as 1:1024.