Flexible Multimode Polymer Waveguide Arrays for Versatile High-Speed Short-Reach Communication Links

Multimode polymer waveguides have attracted great interest for use in high-speed short-reach communication links as they can be cost-effectively integrated onto standard PCBs using conventional methods of the electronics industry and provide low loss (30 GHz×m) interconnection. The formation of such waveguides on flexible substrates can further provide flexible low-weight low-thickness interconnects and offer additional freedom in the implementation of high-speed short-reach optical links. These attributes make these flexible waveguides particularly attractive for use in low-cost detachable chip-to-chip links and in environments where weight and shape conformity become important, such as in cars and aircraft. However, the highly-multimoded nature of these waveguides raises important questions about their performance under severe flex due to mode loss and mode coupling. In this work therefore, we investigate the loss, crosstalk and bandwidth performance of such waveguides under out-of plane bending and in-plane twisting under different launch conditions and carry out data transmission tests at 40 Gb/s on a 1 m long spiral flexible waveguide under flexure. Excellent optical transmission characteristics are obtained while robust loss, crosstalk and bandwidth performance are demonstrated under flexure. Error-free (BER<10-12) 40 Gb/s data transmission is achieved over the 1 m long spiral waveguide for a 180° bend with a 4 mm radius. The obtained results demonstrate the excellent optical and mechanical properties of this technology and highlight its potential for use in real-world systems.Jaguar Land Rover, CAPE LEAS

Pulse generation with ultra-superluminal pulse propagation in semiconductor heterostructures by superradiant-phase transition enhanced by transient coherent population gratings.

This paper reports the observation of ultra-superluminal pulse propagation in multiple-contact semiconductor heterostructures in a superradiant emission regime, and shows definitively that it is a different class of emission from conventional spontaneous or stimulated emission. Coherent population gratings induced in the semiconductor medium under strong electrical pumping have been shown to cause a major decrease of the group refractive index, in the range of 5-40%. This decrease is much greater than that caused by conventional carrier depletion or chirp mechanisms. The decrease in refractive index in turn causes faster-than-c propagation of femtosecond pulses. The measurement also proves the existence of coherent amplification of electromagnetic pulses in semiconductors at room temperature, the coherence being strongly enhanced by interactions of the light with coherent transient gratings locked to carrier gratings. This pulse-generation technique is anticipated to have great potential in applications where highly coherent femtosecond optical pulses must be generated on demand.We acknowledge support of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research CouncilThis is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/lsa.2016.8

Nonlinear optical effects during femtosecond superradiant emission generation in semiconductor laser structures.

This paper presents theoretical and experimental studies of ultrabright internal second harmonic during femtosecond superradiant emission generation in multiple sections GaAs/AlGaAs laser structures at room temperature. Experimentally measured conversion efficiencies are by 1-2 orders of magnitude greater than expected. To explain this fact, a model based on one-dimensional nonlinear Maxwell curl equations without taking into consideration the slowly-varying envelope approximation has been developed. It has been demonstrated that strong transient periodic modulation of e-h density and refraction index dramatically affects the process of superradiance in semiconductor media and can explain the ultrastrong internal second harmonic generation

Peasant settlers and the ‘civilizing mission’ in Russian Turkestan, 1865-1917

This article provides an introduction to one of the lesser-known examples of European settler colonialism, the settlement of European (mainly Russian and Ukrainian) peasants in Southern Central Asia (Turkestan) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It establishes the legal background and demographic impact of peasant settlement, and the role played by the state in organising and encouraging it. It explores official attitudes towards the settlers (which were often very negative), and their relations with the local Kazakh and Kyrgyz population. The article adopts a comparative framework, looking at Turkestan alongside Algeria and Southern Africa, and seeking to establish whether paradigms developed in the study of other settler societies (such as the ‘poor white’) are of any relevance in understanding Slavic peasant settlement in Turkestan. It concludes that there are many close parallels with European settlement in other regions with large indigenous populations, but that racial ideology played a much less important role in the Russian case compared to religious divisions and fears of cultural backsliding. This did not prevent relations between settlers and the ‘native’ population deteriorating markedly in the years before the First World War, resulting in large-scale rebellion in 1916

Quantum degeneracy and phase-space density in superradiant semiconductor heterostructures at room temperature

We investigate the fulfilment of the quantum degeneracy criterium in bulk GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures operated under the superradiant emission generation at room temperature. The e-h density has been evaluated by analysing both spontaneous window emission from above the samples and amplified spontaneous emission radiated from their edges. The maximum experimental value of the phase-space density is 1.31 at $T = 300\ \text{K}$ . It is supposed that resonant photons with energies at the band gap establish coherence within the e-h ensemble and facilitate the build-up of a macroscopic wave packet from overlapped wave functions of collectively paired electrons and holes. As a result, the photon-mediated “stimulated” condensation of e-h pairs in phase space can take place at room temperature

Long-range order in a high-density electron-hole system at room temperature during superradiant phase transition

We have experimentally investigated the formation of off-diagonal long-range order and non-equilibrium BEC-like condensation in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures during superradiant (SR) emission at room temperature. The conclusive evidence of the establishment of phase coherence over a macroscopic range during the superradiant quantum phase transition is reported. The first-order spatial correlation function of the e-h system is determined by evaluating interference patterns of SR emission using Young's double slit