High-contrast 40 Gb/s operation of a 500 um long silicon carrier-depletion slow wave modulator

This paper was published in OPTICS LETTERS and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.37.003504. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law[EN] In this Letter, we demonstrate a highly efficient, compact, high-contrast and low-loss silicon slow wave modulator based on a traveling-wave Mach¿Zehnder interferometer with two 500 μm long slow wave phase shifters. 40 Gb ∕ s operation with 6.6 dB extinction ratio at quadrature and with an on-chip insertion loss of only 6 dB is shown. These results confirm the benefits of slow light as a means to enhance the performance of silicon modulators based on the plasma dispersion effect.Funding by the European Commission (EC) under project Photonics Electronics Functional Integration on CMOS (HELIOS) (FP7224312) and PROMETEO-2010- 087 R&D Excellency Program are acknowledged. F.Y.G, D.J.T. and G.T.R. acknowledge funding support from the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the grant “UK Silicon Photonics”.Brimont, ACJ.; Thomson, DJ.; Gardes, FY.; Fedeli, JM.; Reed, GT.; Martí Sendra, J.; Sanchis Kilders, P. (2012). High-contrast 40 Gb/s operation of a 500 um long silicon carrier-depletion slow wave modulator. Optics Letters. 37(17):3504-3506. https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.37.003504S350435063717Liao, L., Liu, A., Rubin, D., Basak, J., Chetrit, Y., Nguyen, H., … Paniccia, M. (2007). 40 Gbit/s silicon optical modulator for high-speed applications. Electronics Letters, 43(22), 1196. doi:10.1049/el:20072253Gardes, F. Y., Thomson, D. J., Emerson, N. G., & Reed, G. T. (2011). 40 Gb/s silicon photonics modulator for TE and TM polarisations. Optics Express, 19(12), 11804. doi:10.1364/oe.19.011804Thomson, D. J., Gardes, F. Y., Hu, Y., Mashanovich, G., Fournier, M., Grosse, P., … Reed, G. T. (2011). High contrast 40Gbit/s optical modulation in silicon. Optics Express, 19(12), 11507. doi:10.1364/oe.19.011507Brimont, A., Thomson, D. J., Sanchis, P., Herrera, J., Gardes, F. Y., Fedeli, J. M., … Martí, J. (2011). High speed silicon electro-optical modulators enhanced via slow light propagation. Optics Express, 19(21), 20876. doi:10.1364/oe.19.020876Ziebell, M., Marris-Morini, D., Rasigade, G., Fédéli, J.-M., Crozat, P., Cassan, E., … Vivien, L. (2012). 40 Gbit/s low-loss silicon optical modulator based on a pipin diode. Optics Express, 20(10), 10591. doi:10.1364/oe.20.010591Dong, P., Chen, L., & Chen, Y. (2012). High-speed low-voltage single-drive push-pull silicon Mach-Zehnder modulators. Optics Express, 20(6), 6163. doi:10.1364/oe.20.006163Taylor, H. F. (1999). Enhanced electrooptic modulation efficiency utilizing slow-wave optical propagation. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 17(10), 1875-1883. doi:10.1109/50.793770O’Faolain, L., Beggs, D. M., White, T. P., Kampfrath, T., Kuipers, K., & Krauss, T. F. (2010). Compact Optical Switches and Modulators Based on Dispersion Engineered Photonic Crystals. IEEE Photonics Journal, 2(3), 404-414. doi:10.1109/jphot.2010.2047918Brimont, A., Vicente Galán, J., Maria Escalante, J., Martí, J., & Sanchis, P. (2010). Group-index engineering in silicon corrugated waveguides. Optics Letters, 35(16), 2708. doi:10.1364/ol.35.002708Soref, R., & Bennett, B. (1987). Electrooptical effects in silicon. IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, 23(1), 123-129. doi:10.1109/jqe.1987.1073206Nguyen, H. C., Sakai, Y., Shinkawa, M., Ishikura, N., & Baba, T. (2011). 10 Gb/s operation of photonic crystal silicon optical modulators. Optics Express, 19(14), 13000. doi:10.1364/oe.19.013000Dong, P., Liao, S., Liang, H., Qian, W., Wang, X., Shafiiha, R., … Asghari, M. (2010). High-speed and compact silicon modulator based on a racetrack resonator with a 1 V drive voltage. Optics Letters, 35(19), 3246. doi:10.1364/ol.35.00324

Silicon slow-light-based photonic mixer for microwave-frequencyconversion applications

This paper was published in OPTICS LETTERS and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.37.001721. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law[EN] We describe and demonstrate experimentally a method for photonic mixing of microwave signals by using a silicon electro-optical Mach¿Zehnder modulator enhanced via slow-light propagation. Slow light with a group index of ~11, achieved in a one-dimensional periodic structure, is exploited to improve the upconversion performance of an input frequency signal from 1 to 10.25 GHz. A minimum transmission point is used to successfully demonstrate the upconversion with very low conversion losses of ~7¿¿dB and excellent quality of the received I/Q modulated QPSK signal with an optimum EVM of ~8%.Financial support from FP7-224312 HELIOS project and Generalitat Valenciana under PROMETEO-2010-087 R&D Excellency Program (NANOMET) are acknowledged. F. Y.Gardes, D. J. Thomson, and G. T. Reed are supported by funding received from the UK EPSRC funding body under the grant “UK Silicon Photonics.” The author A. M. Gutiérrez thanks D. Marpaung for his useful help.Gutiérrez Campo, AM.; Brimont, ACJ.; Herrera Llorente, J.; Aamer, M.; Martí Sendra, J.; Thomson, DJ.; Gardes, FY.... (2012). Silicon slow-light-based photonic mixer for microwave-frequencyconversion applications. Optics Letters. 37(10):1721-1723. https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.37.001721S17211723371

Morphometric discrimination of two sympatric sibling species in the Palaearctic region, Culicoides obsoletus Meigen and C-scoticus Downes & Kettle (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), vectors of bluetongue and Schmallenberg viruses

Background Some Palaearctic biting midge species (subgenus Avaritia) have been implicated as vectors of bluetongue virus in northern Europe. Separation of two species (C. obsoletus and C. scoticus) is considered difficult morphologically and, often, these female specimens are grouped in entomological studies. However, species-specific identification is desirable to understand their life history characteristics, assess their roles in disease transmission or measure their abundance during arboviral outbreaks. This study aims to investigate whether morphometric identification techniques can be applied to female C. obsoletus and C. scoticus individuals trapped at different geographical regions and time periods during the vector season. Methods C. obsoletus and C. scoticus were collected using light-suction traps from the UK, France and Spain, with two geographical locations sampled per country. A total of 759 C. obsoletus/C. scoticus individuals were identified using a molecular assay based on the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. Fifteen morphometric measurements were taken from the head, wings and abdomen of slide-mounted specimens, and ratios calculated between these measurements. Multivariate analyses explored whether a combination of morphometric variables could lead to accurate species identification. Finally, Culicoides spp. collected in France at the start, middle and end of the adult vector season were compared, to determine whether seasonal variation exists in any of the morphometric measurements. Results The principal component analyses revealed that abdominal characteristics: length and width of the smaller and larger spermathecae, and the length of the chitinous plates and width between them, are the most reliable morphometric characteristics to differentiate between the species. Seasonal variation in the size of each species was observed for head and wing measurements, but not abdominal measurements. Geographical variation in the size of Culicoides spp. was also observed and is likely to be related to temperature at the trapping sites, with smaller individuals trapped at more southern latitudes. Conclusions Our results suggest that female C. obsoletus and C. scoticus individuals can be separated under a stereomicroscope using abdominal measurements. Although we show the length and width of the spermathecae can be used to differentiate between the species, this can be time-consuming, so we recommend undertaking this using standardized subsampling of catches. (Résumé d'auteur

Stopping of energetic sulfur and bromine ions in dense hydrogen plasma

The concepts of communicative space, media sphere and public sphere are sometimes used like synonyms one of the other. However, according to us, they are three different concepts: public sphere and media sphere are two distinct spaces symbolic systems which, both, are anchored in communicative spac

How to know unknown fungi: the role of a herbarium.

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Ultra-sharp asymmetric Fano-like resonance spectrum on Si photonic platform

In this paper, we report the generation of an ultra-sharp asymmetric resonance spectrum through Fano-like interference. This generation is accomplished by weakly coupling a high-quality factor (Q factor) Fabry–Pérot (FP) cavity and a low-Q factor FP cavity through evanescent waves. The high-Q FP cavity is formed by Sagnac loop mirrors, whilst the low-Q one is built by partially transmitting Sagnac loop reflectors. The working principle has been analytically established and numerically modelled by using temporal coupled-mode-theory (CMT), and verified using a prototype device fabricated on the 340 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, patterned by deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography. Pronounced asymmetric resonances with slopes up to 0.77 dB/pm have been successfully measured, which, to the best of our knowledge, is higher than the results reported in state-of-the-art devices in on-chip integrated Si photonic studies. The established theoretical analysis method can provide excellent design guidelines for devices with Fano-like resonances. The design principle can be applied to ultra-sensitive sensing, ultra-high extinction ratio switching, and more applications

INVESTIGATION OF THE TRANSMISSION AND STOPPING OF LIGHT IONS PASSING THROUGH A PLASMA TARGET

Transmission and energy losses of 2 MeV/u Carbon and Sulphur beams passing through a plasma target, have been extensively investigated. A hydrogen plasma ignited by an electrical discharge was coupled to the Orsay Tandem beam accelerator. Fluctuations in beam transmission have been observed and attributed to a magnetic focusing effect generated during the plasma evolution. Energy loss measurements were performed on the basis of time of flight techniques and indicate an enhanced stopping power of the plasma relative to its cold matter equivalent