Multiuser quantum key distribution over telecom fiber networks

We report five-user quantum key distribution (QKD) over switched fiber networks in both star and tree configurations, using the BB84-protocol [1] with phase encoding. Both setups implement polarization insensitive phase modulators, necessary for birefringent single mode fiber (SMF) networks. In both configurations we have achieved transmission distances between 25 km and 50 km with quantum bit error rates between 1.24% and 5.56% for the mean photon number μ=0.1. The measurements have showed feasibility of multiuser QKD over switched fiber networks, using standard fiber telecom components.     

Birefringent azopolymer long period fiber gratings induced by 532 nm polarized laser

Based on the photoinduced birefringence in azo materials, the model of the birefringent long period fiber gratings (BLPFGs) has been proposed and the transmission of such birefringent fiber gratings was further simulated by the coupled mode theory. In order to obtain the optimum condition for making birefringent azopolymer optical fiber (APOF) gratings the photoinduced birefringence of azo dye and methyl methacrylate (MMA) copolymers was systematically studied. After photosensitivity study of azo samples, using Teflon technique, azo dye containing single mode polymer optical fiber (POF) was fabricated. Finally, BLPFGs can be fabricated in azopolymer fiber using polarized 532 nm laser. A 120 μm LPFG with a 50% duty cycle has been successfully written within the core of the fiber with 532 nm laser by an amplitude mask method. Under polarized microphotography, the grating was observed when the optical axis was set at 45° with the direction of the first polarizing lens of the polarization microscope.     

Reduction in timing jitter by chirp selection for externally modulated return to zero optical soliton pulse at 10 Gb/s

We investigate the chirp selection of externally modulated RZ soliton pulse at 10 Gb/s for fiber optical communication systems for the reduction in timing jitter. We have chosen single arm Mach-Zehnder amplitude modulator with sin² electrical shaped input-output (P-V) characteristic and its chirp range has been varied in the range of −5 to 5. The timing jitter, Q factor and bit error rate (BER) generated for the chirp range has been studied for various fiber lengths and post compensation has been demonstrated to reduce the timing jitter. The number of fixed output amplifiers after every 60 km span is varied from 2 to 10 and corresponding accumulated ASE noise has been studied to manage timing jitter and BER in permissible range, i.e. 5 ps and 10⁻⁹, respectively. It is observed that when two fiber spans are taken then the compensating fiber length for the system is less than 20 km for each case of the chirp considered. For 10 fiber spans, the compensating fiber length increases in the range 60-90 km depending upon the value of chirp taken. Finally it is shown that the chirp value of external modulator should be set to either 0 or −1 for externally modulated RZ soliton pulse in 10 Gb/s optical communication system which makes the system more insensitive to the timing jitter and the selection of dispersion compensating fiber length.     

A single wavelength 1339 nm Nd:YAP pulsed laser

The laser oscillating at a weak line of Nd:YAP around 1.3-μm realized though selecting polarization is described. The energy level transitions of Nd:YAP crystal and their polarization properties were analyzed. A thin-film polarizer was adopted to restrain the oscillating of the c-axis strong polarized spectral lines and a reasonable transmittance was designed to suppress the a-axis polarized 1064 nm strong line lasing, and then a-axis polarized 1339 nm pulse laser of 336 mJ for free running mode and 64 mJ for electro-optic Q-switched mode were successfully achieved, corresponding to pulse widths of 180 μs and 35 ns, respectively. This method of selecting polarization to realize weak line oscillating is significant for anisotropic laser crystals doped with Nd³⁺ ions to select the particular transitions.     

Analysis of polarization dependence for OTDM demultiplexers based on four-wavelength mixing in semiconductor optical amplifier

In optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM) systems using the four-wave mixing (FWM) in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) for time demultiplexing, the polarization states of control pulse and OTDM data lights are an important factor in the optical time demultiplexing process, which can influence the bit error rate (BER) of OTDM systems. In this paper, we analyze the effect of light polarization states on the FWM of a SOA, and use a simulation approach to study the BER performance of 100 Gbit/s OTDM systems that use the FWM in a SOA for optical time demultiplexing. It reveals that the BER or Q factor of OTDM systems is dependent on the misalignment θ between the polarization states of OTDM data and control lights. With increasing θ, both the optical power of resulting FWM component and the BER performance (or Q factor) of OTDM systems is degraded. For linearly polarized lights, our results show that the increase of BER and the reduction in Q factor are made smoothly when θ changes its value from 0° to 75°, whereas the degradation of BER and Q factor becomes rapid when θ exceeds 75°. Although the best system BER is obtained for θ = 0°, the BER performance can still tolerate some misalignment θ (e.g., up to 20° in our simulation). This is useful for the engineering design and applications of SOA-based optical time demultiplexers.     

Optimizing 10 Gbps optical communication system with duty cycle selection of return to zero pulse

We have investigated the return-to-zero (RZ) pulse duty cycle for single-channel Standard Single mode fiber (SSMF), Non Zero Dispersion shifted fibers (normal NZDSF and anomalous NZDSF fiber) for 10 Gbps optical fiber communication system. We give a comprehensive look on the behavior of variable duty cycle optical RZ pulse indicating that lowest bit error rate for duty cycle 0.8 among the duty cycle values 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 investigated for the case of SSMF. The single repeaterless mode fiber length is increased from existing 55 km at duty cycle 0.2 to fiber length 85 km by keeping duty cycle at 0.8. The result is also emphasized through the 10 dB Q value improvement and corresponding improvement in average eye opening diagram. The normal NZDSF show similar improvement but at greater fiber length, it offers BER 10⁻⁹ at length 110 km with duty cycle 0.2. NZDSF operating length can further be increased to length 160 km by keeping duty cycle 0.8. The corresponding 8 dB Q value improvement and Average eye opening improvement also supports the result through its graphical variation. Thirdly Anomalous NZDSF for same optical communication system showed that 0.2 duty cycle value give operational length of 130 km which could be extended to 160 km if 0.8 duty cycle is kept. The corresponding 8 dB Q value improvement, average eye-opening improvement endorsed the fact in the graphs.     

Performance evaluation of path-averaged soliton pulses in loss-managed 10-Gbps soliton transmission link over a long haul

In this paper, the performance evaluation of path-averaged soliton transmission link for various performance measures viz. OSNR, optical power, extinction ratio, bit error rate (BER) and Q factor at different levels of noise figure and values of pulse width (FWHM) has been carried out. The performance of soliton transmission link is studied, taking into account soliton interaction, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and noise figure. The model presented considers interaction in a random sequence of solitons and the effect of the ASE noise added in each amplification stage. The influence of ASE noise, noise figure and pulse width with different amplifier spacing on the BER and quality factor has been investigated. It has been shown that these play dominant roles in degrading the performance measures. We have demonstrated the capability of path-averaged (guiding-centre) soliton for a long-haul distance of 17,000 km at a bit rate of 10 Gbps without ASE effect and noise figure in each amplifier span length of 500 km. The average value of quality factor is found to be 16.6 dB and the average BER is of the order of 10⁻¹² over the transmission distance of 17,000 km. Further, it has been investigated that a severe system penalty results on the inclusion of ASE effect and noise figure in order to achieve the same level of performance. Thus, the investigations ascertain that in order to maintain the same level of BER and Q factor, the amplifier spacing and total transmission distance reduce considerably.     

Sagnac quantum key distribution over telecom fiber networks

We present a new concept for compensation of single mode fiber (SMF) birefringence effects in a Sagnac quantum key distribution (QKD) setup, based on a polarization control system and a polarization insensitive phase modulator. Our experimental data show stable (in regards to birefringence drift) QKD over 1550 nm SMF telecom networks in Sagnac configuration, using the BB84-protocol [C.H. Bennett, G. Brassard, in: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computers, Systems, and Signal Processing, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, New York, 1984, p. 175] with phase encoding. The achieved total Sagnac transmission loop distances were between 100 km and 150 km with quantum bit error rates (QBER) between 5.84% and 9.79% for the mean-photon-number μ = 0.1. The distances were much longer and rates much higher than in any other published Sagnac QKD experiments. We also show an example of our one-decoy state protocol implementations (for the 45 km distance between Alice and Bob, corresponding to the 130 km total Sagnac loop length), providing an unconditional QKD security. The measurement results have showed feasibility of QKD over telecom fiber networks in Sagnac configuration, using standard fiber telecom components.     

双折射光纤中三阶色散对孤子脉冲传输的影响

研究了孤子脉冲在双折射光纤零色散点附近的传输特性,应用数值分析方法,讨论了在双折射光纤中,三阶色散对孤子脉冲传输的影响。在输入脉冲两个偏振分量强度相等的情况下,分析发现孤子捕获条件没有变化,但是,脉冲一个偏振分量迅速展宽,另一偏振分量展宽变慢。同时,脉冲的形状、光谱在两个偏振分量中都呈现出不对称性。在一定的条件下,孤子的辐射波主要集中在一个偏振分量中。     

Performance improvement by positioning DCF non-symmetrically in a periodic amplified re-circulating loop for long-haul optical soliton transmission link

In this paper, we have carried out simulative performance analysis by positioning the DCF non-symmetrically in a periodic amplified re-circulating loop for optical soliton transmission link over a long haul. The investigations indicate that relatively stable pulses can propagate in a mid-compensated optical soliton transmission over a long-haul dispersion-managed soliton regime in a fiber link with loss and periodic amplification by keeping the average dispersion small but non-zero. Here non-zero anomalous fiber dispersion equal to 6 ps/nm is maintained by inserting DCF in the beginning, middle and end of the fiber loop. Here it is demonstrated that solitons can propagate even when β₂ varies along the fiber length up to transmission distance of 18,000 km.     

Significance of prechirping on long-haul path-averaged soliton impulse in re-circulating loop at 10 and 20 Gb/s with TOD

In this paper, we have investigated the performance of first- and second-order path-averaged soliton long-haul transmission link including the impact of third-order dispersion (TOD) at varied chirp. Here, the varied chirp is considered keeping in view the inadvertent frequency chirp imposed on all practical sources of short optical pulses. The propagation of strongly chirped pulses in loss-managed long-haul path-averaged soliton transmission network has been shown. The investigations reveal that in first-order (N=1) path-averaged soliton transmission link at 10 and 20 Gb/s, SPM effect on the rising and falling edges of a pulse results in spectral broadening for all values of induced chirp. On the contrary, spectral narrowing of the pulses is observed in second-order negatively chirped path-averaged soliton pulses. The effect of the nonlinearity changes from narrowing to broadening of pulses if the sign of the initial chirp is changed to positive. The results ascertain that the system is capable of transmitting a pulse up to the distance of 24,500 km at bit rates of 10 and 20 Gb/s. Investigations have been carried out by varying the chirp factor in the range −1 to 1 and −1 to 0.4] for 10 and 20 Gb/s, respectively, to demonstrate the robustness of the long-haul soliton link. The observations establish that the pulse width (full-width at half-maximum (FWHM)) remains within the optimal range even at the transmission distance of 24,500 km without and at discrete values of the chirp factor.     

Performance comparison of pre-, post- and symmetrical-dispersion compensation techniques using DCF on 40 Gbps OTDM system for different fibre standards

Various factors like polarization mode dispersion, non-linear effects, Kerr effect, second and third order dispersion impose limit on the performance (transmission distance, pulse broadening) of Optical Time Division Multiplexed (OTDM) transmission system. In this paper, the performance comparison of 40 Gbps OTDM transmission system with pre-, post-, and symmetrical-dispersion compensation techniques for different fibre standards has been carried out. It has been observed that for pre compensation, ITU 655 [D = 3.78 ps/nm/km] came to be best suitable fibre with the dispersion compensating fibre length of 2.36 km for maximum reach of 3000 km. For post- and symmetrical-compensation, the behaviour of alcatel [D = 8 ps/nm/km] is almost similar with maximum transmission distance of 3200 and 3050 km respectively.     

Zero shift in fiber ring interferometer with wideband radiation source

It is shown that the polarization zero shift of a fiber ring interferometer (FRI) is chiefly determined by the Stokes components of the radiation, which are circularly and linearly polarized at an angle of 45° to the axis of the polarizer. A birefringent element between the polarizer and coupler in conjunction with a wideband source results in disappearance of the FRI zero shift, regardless of the mutual orientations of the polarizer, coupler, and birefringent element.Moscow Physics and Technology Institute. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 34, No. 9, pp. 1001–1010, September, 1991.     

Maintaining single polarization and dispersion compensation with modified rectangular microstructure optical fiber

In this paper, we propose and numerically demonstrate a highly birefringent microstructure optical fiber which shows negative dispersion coefficient of about −288 to −550 ps/(nm km) covering S to L wavelength bands and −425 ps/(nm km) at the excitation wavelength 1550 nm. This proposed design successfully compensate the dispersion covering S to L communication bands ranging from 1460 to 1625 nm along with relative dispersion slope (RDS) perfectly matched to that of single mode fiber of about 0.0036 nm⁻¹. Apart from dispersion compensation, the designed MOF offers high birefringence of 2.94 × 10⁻² at 1550 nm and better compensation ratio with design simplicity due to circular air-holes in the fiber cladding.     

Enhanced near field mediated nanohole fabrication on silicon substrate by femtosecond laser pulse

Investigation of the process of nanohole formation on silicon surface mediated with near electromagnetic field enhancement in vicinity of gold particles is described. Gold nanospheres with diameters of 40, 80 and 200 nm are used. Irradiation of the samples with laser pulse at fluences below the ablation threshold for native Si surface, results in a nanosized surface modification. The nanostructure formation is investigated for the fundamental (λ = 800 nm, 100 fs) and the second harmonic (λ = 400 nm, 250 fs) of the laser radiation generated by ultrashort Ti:sapphire laser system. The near electric field distribution is analyzed by an Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulation code. The properties of the produced morphological changes on the Si surface are found to depend strongly on the polarization and the wavelength of the laser irradiation. When the laser pulse is linearly polarized the produced nanohole shape is elongated in the E-direction of the polarization. The shape of the hole becomes symmetrical when the laser radiation is circularly polarized. The size of the ablated holes depends on the size of the gold particles, as the smallest holes are produced with the smallest particles. The variation of the laser fluence and the particle size gives possibility of fabricating structures with lateral dimensions ranging from 200 nm to below 40 nm. Explanation of the obtained results is given on the basis simulations of the near field properties using FDTD model and Mie's theory.     

Fiber laser annealing of nanocrystalline PZT thick film prepared by aerosol deposition

Nanocrystalline PZT thick films (1 mm square and over 10 μm thick) directly deposited onto stainless-steel substrates (PZT/SUS) by aerosol deposition (AD) technique and then annealed using focused laser beam with a fiber laser to suppress thermal damage to the back sides of the PZT/SUS and substrate near the film edge and to retain the dielectric and/or ferroelectric properties of the PZT/SUS. Compared with CO₂ laser annealing, fiber laser annealing suppressed thermal damage to the substrate. Compared with PZT/SUS annealed at 600 °C using an electric furnace, PZT/SUS annealed at 600 °C using a fiber laser showed superior properties, namely, dielectric constant ? > 1200 at a frequency of 100 Hz, remanent polarization P_r > 30 μC/cm², and coercive field strength E_c < 50 kV/cm at a frequency of 10 Hz. Furthermore, the grain growth for the PZT/SUS formed by AD technique and annealed by fiber laser irradiation was occurred within the laser spot size.     

Characterization of structural irregularities in highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber using torsional acoustic polarization coupling

We demonstrate a novel method to characterize structural irregularities in a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber (HB PCF) with high accuracy based on polarization coupling by torsional acoustic wave. Birefringence variation induced by the irregularities of air-hole structure in the fiber cross-section is analyzed via the transmission spectra of the acousto-optic coupling between two orthogonal polarization modes propagating along the fiber. The estimated maximum birefringence variation of two sections in the same batch of the HB PCF is 3 × 10^− 6 and 10^− 5, respectively, from nominal birefringence value of 4.86 × 10^− 4. The comparison between the experimental results and the numerical simulation resulted in the estimation of few tens of nm variation in the air-hole structure in the PCF.     

CW-pumped polarization-maintaining Brillouin fiber ring laser: I. Self-structuration of Brillouin solitons

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) of a cw-pump in a long optical fiber ring cavity generates for a given gain G, below a critical feedback R_crit, a backward soliton Stokes pulse at the roundtrip repetition rate, through resonant three-wave interaction between the optical pump wave and backward Stokes wave, and a high frequency (GHz) axial acoustic wave. In Part I, we perform a systematic experimental and numerical exploration of the whole soliton localisation domain for a large set of (G, R) parameters, in a polarization-maintaining Brillouin fiber ring laser in the best conditions of stability and coherence, and we confirm the excellent quantitative agreement of the coherent three-wave model and the experiments.     

Vortex solitons with inhomogeneous polarization in nonlocal self-focusing nonlinear media

Both azimuthally and radially polarized vortex solitons are investigated to be able to exist in highly nonlocal nonlinear media. We get exactly analytical solutions of azimuthally polarized vortex solitons with only polarization singularities and radially polarized vortex solitons with both phase singularities and polarization singularities. Both azimuthally and radially polarized vortex solitons can exist in nonlocal self-focusing nonlinear media with proper modulation of the beam power and the degree of nonlocality. Contrary to those of radially polarized counterparts in local Kerr media, the topological charge can be any integer. When the topological charge m ≠ 0, both phase singularities and polarization singularities work. When m = 0, the polarization singularities work. Azimuthally polarized vortex solitons with polarization singularities corresponds to the linearly polarized vortex solitons with single charge. Our results show that polarization singularities work the same way as phase singularities in some sense.     

强双折射光纤中超短光脉冲压缩效应研究

研究了强双折射光纤中沿偏振主轴入射的超短光脉冲压缩效应。当考虑三阶色散效应时，三阶色散与光纤非线相互作用能增强一偏振光脉冲的压缩而抑制另一偏振光脉冲的压缩。正三阶和的强慢孤子压缩，负三阶色散增强快孤子压缩，三阶色散参量越大，脉冲压缩效果越明显。