Z+/Z- lithium niobate optical waveguide sensitivity related to pyroelectric effect.

Lithium niobate crystal is widely used for the design and fabrication of integrated electro-optic modulators. As a ferroelectric material, one sees its spontaneous polarization change with temperature variations. This phenomenon, known as the pyroelectric effect, induces strong waveguide transmission variations for waveguides realized on Z-cut wafers. Waveguides made by titanium in-diffusion either on the Z+ or Z- side of the crystal show a significant difference in temperature behavior. Experimental data, enlightened by numerical simulations, help to show why Z- waveguides are more immune to temperature changes than Z+ ones.

In-Orbit Performance of the GRACE Follow-on Laser Ranging Interferometer.

The Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI) instrument on the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-On mission has provided the first laser interferometric range measurements between remote spacecraft, separated by approximately 220 km. Autonomous controls that lock the laser frequency to a cavity reference and establish the 5 degrees of freedom two-way laser link between remote spacecraft succeeded on the first attempt. Active beam pointing based on differential wave front sensing compensates spacecraft attitude fluctuations. The LRI has operated continuously without breaks in phase tracking for more than 50 days, and has shown biased range measurements similar to the primary ranging instrument based on microwaves, but with much less noise at a level of 1 nm/sqrt[Hz] at Fourier frequencies above 100 mHz.

Dual-drive LiNbO3 interferometric Mach-Zehnder architecture with extended linear regime for high peak-to-average OFDM-based communication systems.

A dual-drive LiNbO(3) architecture modulator with chirp management is proposed and developed offering SFDR > 25 dB in a 1.4 V bias excursion compared to only 0.5 V bias excursion in a conventional Mach-Zehnder electro-optical modulator (MZ-EOM). The architecture effectively extends the linear regime and enables the optical transmission of wireless systems employing orthogonal division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation such as ultra-wide band (UWB) which require high linearity over a broad frequency range due to their high peak-to-average power ratio (PARP). Radio-over-fiber UWB transmission in a passive optical network is experimentally demonstrated employing this technique, exhibiting an enhancement of 2.2 dB in EVM after 57 km SSMF when the dual-drive developed modulator is employed.