All-optical pulse reshaping and retiming systems incorporating pulse shaping fiber Bragg grating

This paper demonstrates two optical pulse retiming and reshaping systems incorporating superstructured fiber Bragg gratings (SSFBGs) as pulse shaping elements. A rectangular switching window is implemented to avoid conversion of the timing jitter on the original data pulses into pulse amplitude noise at the output of a nonlinear optical switch. In a first configuration, the rectangular pulse generator is used at the (low power) data input to a nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) to perform retiming of an incident noisy data signal using a clean local clock signal to control the switch. In a second configuration, the authors further amplify the data signal and use it to switch a (low power) clean local clock signal. The S-shaped nonlinear characteristic of the NOLM results in this instance in a reduction of both timing and amplitude jitter on the data signal. The underlying technologies required for the implementation of this technique are such that an upgrade of the scheme for the regeneration of ultrahigh bit rate signals at data rates in excess of 320 Gb/s should be achievable

Novel Fiber Design for Wideband Conversion and Amplification in Multimode Fibers

We propose an operating principle to achieve broadband and highly tunable mode conversion and amplification exploiting inter-modal four wave mixing in a multimode fiber. A bandwidth of 30 nanometers is demonstrated by properly designing a simple step-index silica fiber.Comment: Ecoc conference 201

Efficient binary phase quantizer based on phase sensitive four wave mixing

We experimentally demonstrate an efficient binary phase quantizer operating at low pump powers. Phase-sensitive operation is obtained by polarization mixing the phase-locked signal/idler pair in a degenerate dual-pump vector parametric amplifier

Evaluation of algorithms for estimating wheat acreage from multispectral scanner data

The author has identified the following significant results. Fourteen different classification algorithms were tested for their ability to estimate the proportion of wheat in an area. For some algorithms, accuracy of classification in field centers was observed. The data base consisted of ground truth and LANDSAT data from 55 sections (1 x 1 mile) from five LACIE intensive test sites in Kansas and Texas. Signatures obtained from training fields selected at random from the ground truth were generally representative of the data distribution patterns. LIMMIX, an algorithm that chooses a pure signature when the data point is close enough to a signature mean and otherwise chooses the best mixture of a pair of signatures, reduced the average absolute error to 6.1% and the bias to 1.0%. QRULE run with a null test achieved a similar reduction

Quadrature decomposition of optical fields using two orthogonal phase sensitive amplifiers

We propose a new technique to optically process coherent signals by simultaneously extracting their two (I and Q) quadrature components into two orthogonal polarizations at the same frequency. Two possible implementations are demonstrated

Solar array subsystems study

The effects on life cycle costs of a number of technology areas are examined for a LEO, 500 kW solar array. A baseline system conceptual design is developed and the life cycle costs estimated in detail. The baseline system requirements and design technologies are then varied and their relationships to life cycle costs quantified. For example, the thermal characteristics of the baseline design are determined by the array materials and masses. The thermal characteristics in turn determine configuration, performance and hence life cycle cost

Novel applications of fibre tapers

In this talk we will discuss new applications for fibre tapers ranging from femtosecond pulse manipulation to optical clock generation in micro-coil resonators. Fundamental to these interactions is the enhanced nonlinearity arising from the smaller cores making compact optical devices possible

Novel polarization-assisted phase sensitive optical signal processor requiring low nonlinear phase shifts

We demonstrate a new scheme to achieve binary step-like phase response and high phase-sensitive extinction ratio at low powers. Phase-sensitive operation is achieved by polarization filtering phase-locked signal/idler in a degenerate dual-pump vector parametric amplifier

Signal regeneration techniques for advanced modulation formats

We review recent results on all-optical regeneration of phase encoded signals based on phase sensitive amplification achieved by avoiding phase-to-amplitude conversion in order to facilitate the regeneration of amplitude/phase encoded (QAM) signals

Phase sensitive amplifiers for regeneration of phase encoded optical signal formats

We discuss the application of phase sensitive fiber optical parametric devices for the regenerative processing of high baud rate optical signals. We present recent advances in phase-sensitive amplification technology and its application to the regeneration of phase-encoded signals. By combining four wave mixing based parametric effects in highly nonlinear optical fibers and injection locking assisted synchronisation of multiple coherent lasers, we demonstrate how it possible to derive phase regeneration in signals with more than two levels of phase encoding