A gain-clamped-semiconductor-optical-amplifier combined with a distributed Raman-fiber-amplifier: a good candidate as an inline amplifier for WDM networks

A gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is used as an inline amplifier in combination with a distributed Raman fiber amplifier. The combined amplifier has 20 dB gain and a noise figure below 2.7 dB. The optical signal to noise ratios after five spans of 20 dB loss, equivalent to 5 × 80 km, are over 25.2 dB for eight-channel transmissions. In addition, the potentially compact amplifier shows negligible transients under dynamic add-drops.     

All-optical sampling exploiting nonlinear polarization rotation in a single semiconductor optical amplifier

An all-optical sampling scheme using a single semiconductor optical amplifier is proposed for analog signal processing. The analog optical signal is sampled by the probe pulse train through the nonlinear polarization rotation arising in the semiconductor optical amplifier. Conversion efficiency and total harmonic distortion are presented to evaluate the sampling linearity. In the experiment, 40 GSa/s all-optical sampling for 2.5 GHz analog optical signal is successfully demonstrated with commercially available fiber-pigtailed components. The results show that the fundamental conversion efficiency and the total harmonic distortion are 1.35 and 2.01% at the operating power of 5 mW, respectively. The proposed all-optical sampling requires only one semiconductor optical amplifier and has low power consumption, which is simple and has potential for photonic integration.     

A mid-infrared carbon monoxide sensor system using wideband absorption spectroscopy and a single-reflection spherical optical chamber

A mid-infrared carbon monoxide (CO) sensor system based on a dual-channel differential detection method was developed using a broadband light source in the 4.60 µm wavelength region and a single-reflection spherical optical chamber with ∼0.373 m absorption path length. CO detection was realized by targeting the wideband strong absorption lines within 4.55–4.65 µm. A dual-channel pyroelectric detector as well as a self-developed digital signal processor (DSP) based orthogonal lock-in amplifier was employed to process CO sensing signal. A minimum detection limit of ∼0.5 ppm in volume (ppmv) was achieved with a measurement time of 6 s, based on an Allan deviation analysis of the sensor system. The response time (1000 → 0 ppmv) was determined to be ∼7 s for the CO sensor operation. Due to the characteristics of low detection limit, fast response time and high cost performance, the proposed sensor has relatively good prospect in coal-mining operation.     

A long-reach WDM passive optical network enabling broadcasting service with centralized light source

We propose a long-reach wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) passive optical network (PON) to provide conventional point-to-point (P2P) data and downstream broadcasting service simultaneously by superimposing, for each WDM channel, the differential-phase-shift-keying (DPSK) broadcasting signal with the subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) modulated downstream P2P signal, at the optical line terminal (OLT). In the optical network units (ONUs), by re-modulating part of the downstream signal with a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA), we realize color-less ONUs for upstream data transmission. The proposed scheme is numerically verified with a 5 Gb/s downstream P2P signal and broadcasting services, as well as 2.5 Gb/s upstream data through a 60 km bidirectional fiber link. In particular, the influence of the downstream lightwave's optical carrier–subcarrier ratio (OCSR) on the system performance is also investigated.     

Performance analysis of optical network based on optical add drop multiplexers with different MZI techniques

This paper presents an investigation on the performance of an optical network in terms of crosstalk based on optical add drop multiplexers with Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI), MZI-semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and MZI-fiber Braggs gratings (FBG) techniques obtained at 8 × 10 Gbps with 0.1 nm channel spacing wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmission with optical add drop multiplexer (OADM) placed at the 20 km point of a 40 km link. It is found that the signal can be transmitted with least BER and better Q-factor with MZI-FBG based OADM and the worst case is found with the MZI-SOA based OADM.     

Optical coherence tomography based imaging of dental demineralisation and cavity restoration in 840 nm and 1310 nm wavelength regions

In this paper, a study of in-house built optical coherence tomography (OCT) system with a wavelength of 840 nm for imaging of dental caries, progress in demineralisation and cavity restoration is presented. The caries when imaged with the 840 nm OCT system showed minute demineralisation in the order of 5 μm. The OCT system was also proposed to study the growth of lesion and this was demonstrated by artificially inducing caries with a demineralisation solution of pH 4.8. The progress of carious lesion to a depth of about 50–60 μm after 60 hours of demineralisation was clearly observed with the 840 nm OCT system. The tooth samples were subjected to accelerated demineralisation condition at pH of approximately 2.3 to study the adverse effects and the onset of cavity formation was clearly observed. The restoration of cavity was also studied by employing different restorative materials (filled and unfilled). In the case of restoration without filler material (unfilled), the restoration boundaries were clearly observed. Overall, results were comparable with that of the widely used 1310 nm OCT system. In the case of restoration with filler material, the 1310 nm OCT imaging displayed better imaging capacity due to lower scattering than 840 nm imaging.     

Ball lens based lensed patch cord probes for optical coherence tomography in the field of dentistry

A lensed patch cord probe has been made with a ball lens packaged in a metal cylinder. By simply placing a ball lens directly in front of a fiber patch cord, a compact and potentially disposable sampling probe for optical coherence tomography (OCT) could be implemented. To achieve a sufficiently long working distance and a good transverse resolution simultaneously, the proper ball lens diameter and the distance between the ball lens and the fiber patch cord were investigated. Experimentally, a working distance of up to 5.2 mm, 3 dB bandwidth of 2 mm, and transverse resolution of 16 μm were achieved. With the patch cord probe, a common path swept source OCT system was implemented and used to demonstrate the feasibility as the dedicated probe for dentistry.     

Dual-stage L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier with distributed pumping from single pump laser

A dual-stage L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier with a flat gain bandwidth over 36 nm is demonstrated using pump distribution technique. The pump power was distributed to two stages depending on the splitting ratio and the length of erbium-doped fiber that was used for this configuration. Both parameters are the key components for achieving a substantially flat gain response throughout the L-band region ranging from 1570 nm to 1605 nm. Although the input signal power was varied from ? 30 dBm to 0 dBm, gain of 17 dB with slight variations of less than 1.5 dB and a noise figure of less than 6.7 dB were achieved. All the results obtained show better performances when comparison was made with the conventional single-stage L-band optical amplifier.     

56 dB Gain EYDFA with improved noise figure with dual-stage partial double pass configuration

An efficient erbium/ytterbium co-doped fiber amplifier (EYDFA) is demonstrated by using a dual-stage partial double pass structure with a band pass filter (BPF). The amplifier achieves the maximum small signal gain of 56 dB and the corresponding noise figure of 4.66 dB at 1536 nm with an input signal power and total pump power of ?50 dBm and 140 mW, respectively. Compared with a conventional single-stage amplifier, the maximum gain enhancement of 16.99 dB is obtained at 1544 nm with the corresponding noise figure is improved by 2 dB. The proposed amplifier structure only uses a single pump source with a partial double pass scheme to provide a high gain and dual-stage structure to provide the low noise figure.     

Multiwavelength fiber ring laser using a gain clamped semiconductor optical amplifier

We demonstrate a novel multi-wavelength fiber ring laser based on a gain clamped semiconductor optical amplifier. The number of lasing lines can be tuned by adjusting the loss inside the cavity. The wavelength interval between the wavelengths is 100 GHz. The proposed laser shows a stable operation with total intensity fluctuation for a single laser line within ±0.02 dB at room temperature for a period of 30-minutes.     

Segments of a commercial Ge-doped optical fiber as a thermoluminescent dosimeter in radiotherapy

Optical fibers have been proposed as dosimeters in both diagnostic and radiotherapy applications. A commercial germanium (Ge)-doped silica fiber with a 50 μm core diameter which showed good thermoluminescence (TL) properties was selected for this study. The radiation sources used were a high dose rate brachytherapy iridium-192, MV photon and MeV electron beams from a linear accelerator. The coating of the fiber was chemically removed and then annealed at 400 °C for 1 h prior to irradiation. After irradiation, the fiber was read on a Harshaw Model 3500 TLD reader. The optical fiber had one well-defined glow peak at 327 ± 2 °C at all the radiotherapy energies. The dose response was linear within the clinical relevant dose for all these energies. Reproducibility was mainly within 4–6% (one standard deviation) for high energy photons and electrons. The fiber was found to be energy independent within the MV photon energy range. At room temperature the fading up until 1 month was around 6% which was within the 6% uncertainty of the sensitivity calibration of the fiber. Re-using the fiber four times did not significantly alter the sensitivity factor. The optical fiber was found to be dose rate as well as angular independent. Central axis depth dose curves of both 10 MV photons and 12 MeV electrons using the fiber showed relatively good agreement to standard depth dose curves in water within 4%. The Ge-doped fiber is a promising TL dosimeter but improvements have to be made to reduce the reproducibility within 3% for high energy photons and electrons.     

A filterless optical millimeter-wave generation based on frequency octupling

A novel method of a filterless optical millimeter-wave (MMW) signal generation with frequency octupling using four nested Mach–Zehnder modulators (MZMs) is proposed for Radio-over-fiber systems. By symmetrically biasing the MZMs and using two RF driving signals with 90 deg phase delay, a cost-effective, high-quality and filterless optical millimeter-wave at 80 GHz with an optical harmonic distortion suppression ratio exceeding 40 dB is obtained. The proposed system is insensitive to the MZM bias drift, which demonstrates a relatively higher stability. So it is a viable solution for the future ultra-high frequency MMW applications.     

A long-range,high-resolution optical coherence tomography for physical and environmental measurements

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging optical imaging technique that is applied with low coherence interference to perform noninvasive, high-resolution images on internal and surface structures. In this study, we built an optical coherence system and developed a combined envelope-fringe and carrier-fringe technique that can take advantage of high-resolution and long-range for taking physical and environmental measurements. The proposed system demonstrated that the detection resolution of the changes of the refractive index was 1.89 × 10^? 4 for the long-range set-up (i.e. using the envelope-fringe only), and 4.15 × 10^? 5 for the high-resolution set-up (i.e. using the carrier-fringe). In addition, we successfully applied the system to measure the refractive index of a body of water, as the index for determining the pollution condition of different lakes.     

High speed ultra short pulse fiber ring laser using photonic crystal fiber nonlinear optical loop mirror

A scheme to generate high speed optical pulse train with ultra short pulse width is proposed and experimentally studied. Two-step compression is used in the scheme: 20 GHz and 40 GHz pulse trains generated from a rational harmonic actively mode-locked fiber ring laser is compressed to a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of ~ 1.5 ps using adiabatic soliton compression with dispersion shifted fibers (DSF). The pulse trains then undergo a pedestal removal process by transmission through a cascaded two photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-nonlinear optical loop mirrors (NOLM) realized using a double-ring structure. The shortest output pulse width obtained was ~ 610 fs for 20 GHz pulse train and ~ 570 fs for 40 GHz pulse train. The signal to noise ratio of the RF spectrum of the output pulse train is larger than 30 dB. Theoretical simulation of the NOLM transmission is conducted using split-step Fourier method. The results show that two cascaded NOLMs can improve the compression result compared to that for a single NOLM transmission.     

Advanced multifunctional optical switch for multimode optical fiber networks

In this work, an advanced multifunctional optical switch based on multimode fibers is proposed. It can work as a 3 × 1 optical multiplexer/combiner, a 2 × 2 optical switch, a variable optical attenuator and a variable optical power splitter. All these functionalities can be developed in the same device without any hardware modification, only by using the proper ports and control electronics.The proposed switch has been developed for being used in the visible and near infrared wavelength range: 450–650 nm for optical fiber automobile applications, 650–850 nm for home broadband applications; and 850–1300 nm for multimode fiber access networks. Up to three different types of twisted nematic liquid crystal cells have been designed and fabricated for fulfilling these different wavelength ranges as part of the proposed device.The multifunctional switch has been implemented and experimentally tested. Crosstalk usually better than ? 15 dB at 532 nm, 660 nm and 850 nm, in any state has been measured. Switching is achieved at voltage levels of 4 Vrms. Fiber to fiber insertion losses when operating as a 2 × 2 optical switch, range from 10 to 15 dB within 200 nm wavelength range; with a non-optimized optics for collimation and coupling.     

Cascaded continuous-wave singly resonant optical parametric oscillator pumped by a single-frequency fiber laser

We present a cascaded continuous-wave singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (SRO) delivering idler output in mid-IR and terahertz frequency range. The SRO was pumped by an ytterbium-doped fiber laser with 27 W linear polarization pump powers, and based on periodically poled MgO:LiNbO₃ crystal (PPMgLN) in two-mirror linear cavity. The PPMgLN is 50 mm long with 29.5 μm period. The idler power output at 3811 nm was obtained 2.6 W. The additional spectral components that have been attributed to cascaded optical parametric processes are described at increasing pump levels. Besides the initial signal component at about 1476.8 nm, further generated wavelengths with frequency shifts about 47 cm^?1, 94 cm^?1 and 104 cm^?1 were observed. It was speculated that the idler waves lie in the terahertz (THz) domain from the observed results.     

Experimental investigation on gain-dependent chromatic dispersion of the semiconductor optical amplifier

Using a chromatic-dispersion analysis method based on K–K transformation of the gain spectrum, we experimentally investigated the chromatic dispersion of semiconductor optical amplifier in detail within the wavelength range from 1530 nm to 1610 nm. Experimental results demonstrate that there are three typical dispersion regions, which are abnormal dispersion, flatten dispersion and normal dispersion region, and three zero-dispersion points, which exist around 1550 nm, 1580 nm and 1600 nm, over the wide wavelength range of 80 nm. With an increase in bias current on SOA, wavelengths of the three zero dispersion points all had a blue shift and the three near-zero dispersion regions corresponding became wider. However, the three near-zero dispersion regions corresponding became narrower when the input optical power increased. Therefore, the dispersion of SOA can be flexibly adjusted by changing the bias current and input optical power to SOA.     

10 Gb/s optical carrier distributed network with W-band (0.1 THz) short-reach wireless communication system

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) operated in W-band (75 GHz–0.11 THz) is of particular interests, since this frequency band can carry signals at much higher data rates. We demonstrate a 10 Gb/s optical carrier-distributed network with the wireless communication system. The mm-wave signal at carrier frequency of 0.1 THz is generated by a high speed near-ballistic uni-traveling carrier photodiode (NBUTC-PD) based transmitter (Tx), which is optically excited by optical short pulses. The optical pulse source is produced from a self-developed photonic mm-wave waveform generator (PMWG), which allows spectral line-by-line pulse shaping. Hence these optical pulses have high tolerance to fiber chromatic dispersion. The W-band 10 Gb/s wireless data is transmitted and received via a pair of horn antennas. The received 10 Gb/s data is envelope-detected and then used to drive an optical modulator at the remote antenna unit (RAU) to produce the upstream signal sending back to the central office (CO). 20 km single mode fiber (SMF) error free transmission is achieved. Analysis about the optimum repetition rate of the optical pulse source and the transmission performance of the upstream signal are also performed and discussed.     

A novel tunable optical oscillator for broadband signals

A tunable optical oscillator that generates signals at the micro- to millimeter-wave band for wireless communication applications is suggested. It uses directly modulated semiconductor lasers, in which sideband modes and four-wave mixing (FWM) conjugate modes are injection locked by the simple control of the applied modulation power. The signals at 15 GHz with phase noise of below ?95 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 100 kHz were experimentally obtained. The frequency of the generated signal is tunable, and the maximum achievable signal frequency is limited mainly by the bandwidth of the receiver.     

Gain flattening technique for optical wireless front-end receiver considering various large window photodetectors

A novel gain flattening technique for an optical wireless front-end receiver structure involving a bootstrap transimpedance amplifier (BTA) integrated with a MEMS variable feedback capacitor has been demonstrated. The MEMS varicap replaces a fixed capacitance as the feedback element in the front end system to optimize the performance of the BTA in terms of its frequency response. The implementation of the MEMS device with a BTA optical front-end receiver was verified using CoventorWare ARCHITECT. The simulation results showed that the approach can significantly flatten the peaking gain by up to 14 dB, when considering a system with various photodetector capacitances, ranging in value from 100 pF to 1 nF.