Multi-wavelength fiber laser with erbium doped zirconia fiber and semiconductor optical amplifier

Multi-wavelength hybrid fiber lasers are demonstrated in both ring and linear cavities using a fabricated Erbium-doped Zirconia fiber (EDZF) and semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as gain media. In both configurations, the a fiber loop mirror, which is constructed using a 3 m long polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) and a polarization insensitive 3dB coupler is used as a comb filter for the fiber laser. In the ring cavity, 10 simultaneous lines with peak power above -26 dBm is obtained at 1550 nm region. This is an improvement compared to the linear cavity configuration which has only 5 simultaneous lines observed from wavelength 1556.1 nm to 1563.0 nm with the peak power above -40 dBm. Both hybrid lasers has a constant line spacing of 1.7 nm, which is suitable for wavelength division multiplexing and sensing applications and shows a stable operation at room temperature

High-speed, solid state, interferometric interrogator and multiplexer for fiber Bragg grating sensors

We report on the design and prototyping of a robust high-speed interferometric multiplexer and interrogator for fiber Bragg grating sensors. The scheme is based on the combination of active WDM channel switching and passive, instantaneous interferometry, allowing the resolution of virgin interferometric interrogators to be retained at MHz multiplexing rates. In this article the system design and operation are described, and a prototype scheme is characterized for three sensors and a multiplexing rate of 4 kHz, demonstrating a noise floor of 10 nε/√Hz and no cross-sensitivity. It is proposed that the system will be applicable to demanding monitoring applications requiring high speed and high resolution measurements across the sensor array

On-chip generation of heralded photon-number states

Beyond the use of genuine monolithic integrated optical platforms, we report here a hybrid strategy enabling on-chip generation of configurable heralded two-photon states. More specifically, we combine two different fabrication techniques, \textit{i.e.}, non-linear waveguides on lithium niobate for efficient photon-pair generation and femtosecond-laser-direct-written waveguides on glass for photon manipulation. Through real-time device manipulation capabilities, a variety of path-coded heralded two-photon states can be produced, ranging from product to entangled states. Those states are engineered with high levels of purity, assessed by fidelities of 99.5$\pm$8\% and 95.0$\pm$8\%, respectively, obtained via quantum interferometric measurements. Our strategy therefore stands as a milestone for further exploiting entanglement-based protocols, relying on engineered quantum states, and enabled by scalable and compatible photonic circuits

Reconfigurable photonic integrated mode (de)multiplexer for SDM fiber transmission

A photonic integrated circuit for mode multiplexing and demultiplexing in a few-mode fiber is presented and demonstrated. Two 10 Gbit/s channels at the same wavelength and polarization are simultaneously transmitted over modes LP01 and LP11a of a few-mode fiber exploiting the integrated mode MUX and DEMUX. The proposed Indium-Phosphide-based circuits have a good coupling efficiency with fiber modes with mode-dependant loss smaller than 1 dB. Measured mode excitation cross-talk is as low as -20 dB and a channel cross-talk after propagation and demultiplexing of -15 dB is achieved. An operational bandwidth of the full transmission system of at least 10 nm is demonstrated. Both mode MUX and DEMUX are fully reconfigurable and allow a dynamic switch of channel routing in the transmission system

Optical signal processing via two-photon absorption in a semiconductor microcavity for the next generation of high-speed optical communications network

Due to the introduction of new broadband services, individual line data rates are expected to exceed 100 Gb/s in the near future. To operate at these high speeds, new optical signal processing techniques will have to be developed. This paper will demonstrate that two-photon absorption in a specially designed semiconductor microcavity is an ideal candidate for optical signal processing applications such as autocorrelation, sampling, and demultiplexing in high-speed wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) and hybrid WDM/optical time-division-multiplexed networks