Numerical Estimation of Spectral Properties of Laser Based on Rate Equations

Laser spectral properties are essential to evaluate the performance of optical communication systems. In general, the power spectral density of the phase noise has a crucial impact on spectral properties of the unmodulated laser signal. Here the white Gaussian noise and 1/f-noise are taken into the consideration. By utilizing the time-dependent realizations of the instantaneous optical power and the phase simultaneously, it is possible to estimate the power spectral density or alternatively the power spectrum of an unmodulated laser signal shifted to the baseband and thus estimate the laser linewidth. In this work, we report on the theoretical approach to analyse unmodulated real-valued high-frequency stationary random passband signal of laser, followed by presenting the numerical model of the distributed feedback laser to emulate the time-dependent optical power and the instantaneous phase, as two important time domain laser attributes. The laser model is based on numerical solving the rate equations using fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. This way, we show the direct estimation of the power spectral density and the laser linewidth, when time-dependent laser characteristics are known

Monitoring of polarization-based effects in fiber-optic transmission link caused by environmental variations

The fast transmission of signals around the globe is fundamental to the flow of information for our society. A long-haul transmission certainly represents one of the key advancements that shaped modern ways of communicating and offers a nearly instant access to any available data or a latest information. However, fiber-optic transmission typically suffers from a variety of physical impairments that degrade the signal quality, thus imposing limits on both, the achievable transmission capacity and data reach. Of particular concerns are stochastic fiber impairments, primarily represented by polarization mode dispersion (PMD). The PMD originates from a random birefringence caused by imperfect fiber circularity and other, both internal and external, effects, basically completely re-defining the light polarization state of output signal compared to its initial counterpart. The PMD is particularly critical as it restricts operation of fiber-optic links running at speeds higher than 10 Gbps. This, in turn, hinders fiber link re-adaption towards higher transmission bit rates in future, however. In this context, both in-line link monitoring and testing of PMD-based effects is of great importance within the recently used optical fiber links. However, polarization-based effects are also very sensitive to the environmental changes, substantially degrading transmitted optical signals and reducing link quality. In this work, we provide experimental characterization for PMD-based propagation effects in optical fibers influenced by wind gusts. The investigation was performed on commercially used fiber-optic link that runs through optical power ground wire cables. The 111-km-long optical link under study comprised installed optical fibers with available 88 channels. Here, we monitored environmental changes caused by wind conditions over several consecutive days with a 60 second time frame and sensed PMD impact on the link performance. Here, differential group delay (DGD) was chosen to be a key parameter, enabling for sensitive characterization of wind related link changes. Measured maximum DGD’s were 4 and 10 ps for wind speeds up to 5 and 20 m/s, respectively. In addition, experimentally measured data were used in numerical model to assess the optical link quality. For a low wind condition, we observed negligible quality degradation in the optical link, considering transmission bit rates of 10, 40, and 100 Gbps. Conversely, in case of strong wind condition, the optical link maintained a reliable operation only for established 10 Gbps, while significant link degradation was observed for bit rates of 40 and 100 Gbps. Our work shows promising way to effectively sense and monitor undesired environmental variations and their impact on polarization-based fiber link propagation effects, which in turn, can allow an instant link quality evaluation

Strain-induced Pockels effect in silicon waveguides

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High speed characteristics of strained-induced Pockels effect in silicon

International audienceWith the fast growing demand of data, current chip-scale communication systems based on electrical links suffer rate limitations and high power consumptions to address these new requirements. In this context, Silicon Photonics has proven to be a viable alternative by replacing electronic links with optical ones while taking advantage of the well-established CMOS foundries techniques to reduce fabrication costs. However, silicon, in spite of being an excellent material to guide light, its centrosymmetry prevents second order nonlinear effects to exist, such as Pockels effect an electro-optic effect extensively used in high speed and low power consumption data transmission. Nevertheless, straining silicon by means of stressed thin films allows breaking the crystal symmetry and eventually enhancing Pockels effect. However the semiconductor nature of silicon makes the analysis of Pockels effect a challenging task because free carriers have a direct impact, through plasma dispersion effect, on its efficiency, which in turn complicates the estimation of the second order susceptibility necessary for further optimizations. However, this analysis is more relaxed working in high-speed regime because of the frequency limitation of free carriers-based modulation. In this work, we report experimental results on the modulation characteristics based on Mach-Zehnder interferometers strained by silicon nitride. We demonstrated high speed Pockels-based optical modulation up to 25 GHz in the C-band

Low-loss grating-coupled optical interfaces for large-volume fabrication with deep-ultraviolet optical lithography

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L-shaped fiber-chip grating couplers with high- directionality and low reflectivity fabricated with deep-UV lithography

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Germanium-based integrated photonics from near- to mid-infrared applications

Germanium (Ge) has played a key role in silicon photonics as an enabling material for datacom applications. Indeed, the unique properties of Ge have been leveraged to develop high performance integrated photodectors, which are now mature devices. Ge is also very useful for the achievement of compact modulators and monolithically integrated laser sources on silicon. Interestingly, research efforts in these domains also put forward the current revolution of mid-IR photonics. Ge and Ge-based alloys also present strong advantages for mid-infrared photonic platform such as the extension of the transparency window for these materials, which can operate at wavelengths beyond 8 μm. Different platforms have been proposed to take benefit from the broad transparency of Ge up to 15 μm, and the main passive building blocks are now being developed. In this review, we will present the most relevant Ge-based platforms reported so far that have led to the demonstration of several passive and active building blocks for mid-IR photonics. Seminal works on mid-IR optical sensing using integrated platforms will also be reviewed

On-chip Bragg grating waveguides and Fabry-Perot resonators for long-wave infrared operation up to 8.4 µm

International audienceTaking advantage of unique molecular absorption lines in the mid-infrared fingerprint region and of the atmosphere transparency window (3-5 µm and 8-14 µm), mid-infrared silicon photonics has attracted more research activities with a great potential for applications in different areas, including spectroscopy, remote sensing, free-space communication and many others. However, the demonstration of resonant structures operating at long-wave infrared wavelengths still remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate Bragg grating-based Fabry-Perot resonators based on Ge-rich SiGe waveguides with broadband operation in the mid-infrared. Bragg grating waveguides are investigated first at different wavelengths from 5.4 µm up to 8.4 µm, showing a rejection band up to 21 dB. Integrated Fabry-Perot resonators are then demonstrated for the first time in the 8 µm-wavelength range, showing Q-factors as high as 2200. This first demonstration of integrated mid-infrared Fabry-Perot resonators paves the way towards resonance-enhanced sensing circuits and non-linear based devices at these wavelengths

Spectral Transmission Characteristics of Andvanced Amplitude Modulation Formats

In this paper we focus our attention on numerical investigation of high-order amplitude modulation format in single-channel transmission systems utilizing different kinds of optical fibers. The aim is to show the spectral behavior of advanced amplitude modulated signals in view of fundamental parameters of fiber-optic system. The investigation is realized by solving the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE) through the pseudospectral split-step Fourier method (SSFM). The obtained results show that the advanced amplitude modulation formats are sensitive to nonlinear phenomenon and they are more desirable for using at short-haul networks

Circular Optical Phased Arrays with Radial Nano-Antennas

On-chip optical phased arrays (OPAs) are the enabling technology for diverse applications, ranging from optical interconnects to metrology and light detection and ranging (LIDAR). To meet the required performance demands, OPAs need to achieve a narrow beam width and wide-angle steering, along with efficient sidelobe suppression. A typical OPA configuration consists of either one-dimensional (1D) linear or two-dimensional (2D) rectangular arrays. However, the presence of grating sidelobes from these array configurations in the far-field pattern limits the aliasing-free beam steering, when the antenna element spacing is larger than half of a wavelength. In this work, we provide numerical analysis for 2D circular OPAs with radially arranged nano-antennas. The circular array geometry is shown to effectively suppress the grating lobes, expand the range for beam steering and obtain narrower beamwidths, while increasing element spacing to about 10 μm. To allow for high coupling efficiency, we propose the use of a central circular grating coupler to feed the designed circular OPA. Leveraging radially positioned nano-antennas and an efficient central grating coupler, our design can yield an aliasing-free azimuthal field of view (FOV) of 360°, while the elevation angle FOV is limited by the far-field beamwidth of the nano-antenna element and its array arrangement. With a main-to-sidelobe contrast ratio of 10 dB, a 110-element OPA offers an elevation FOV of 5° and an angular beamwidth of 1.14°, while an 870-element array provides an elevation FOV up to 20° with an angular beamwidth of 0.35°. Our analysis suggests that the performance of the circular OPAs can be further improved by integrating more elements, achieving larger aliasing-free FOV and narrower beamwidths. Our proposed design paves a new way for the development of on-chip OPAs with large 2D beam steering and high resolutions in communications and LIDAR systems