Search

In this article, we propose and numerically demonstrate a novel dual-phase modulated time-delay signature (TDS) concealed communication system. The proposed system addresses the fatal disadvantage of conventional electro-optic chaotic systems in that TDS is vulnerable to detection. Combined with the dispersive devices ahead, which significantly expands the complexity of the signal, the scheme perturbs the transmitted data with the mutual injection of the feedforward and feedback branches in the phase, strengthening the nonlinear effect of the system considerably. In addition, the key space of the system against illegal users’ exhaustive attack within reasonable parameters reaches 1019, which is 14 orders of magnitude larger than that of the classical electro-optic system. A confidential 32 G/s OOK signal was transmitted over 100 km and successfully recovered. Numerical results demonstrate that the chaotic system can tolerate minor parameter mismatches which are controllable in practice, proving that the system can be used for secure communication.

Chaos generation from a semiconductor laser under band-rejection optical feedback is proposed and investigated numerically and experimentally. The band-rejection feedback performs better than the conventional broadband mirror feedback in concealing the feedback delay time information measured by the time-delay signature (TDS) of optical field and intensity. In this work, the optical band-rejection filter (BRF) is built up based on the transmission of a Bragg grating. The best concealment of delay time information is achieved in the form of simultaneous TDS suppression in optical field and intensity when the BRF is negatively detuned from the free-running laser frequency. Such concealment is due to the suppression of feedback cavity modes by the band-rejection effect. The concealment prefers negative detuning frequency because the laser cavity resonance is red-shifted by optical feedback due to the antiguidance effect. The negatively detuned BRF suppresses the TDS of optical field and intensity by more than an order of magnitude than mirror feedback. The simulation results are qualitatively confirmed by the experimental measurements.

We study improvements of the Self-Injection Locked (SIL) distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor laser phase noise as well as integral linewidth on the amount of the SIL feedback and show that SIL reduces the laser noise nearly equally in a broad frequency range, spanning from 1 Hz to 10 MHz. In our experiment SIL operation is supported by a tunable resonant reflector consisting of a high quality factor (high-Q) monolithic whispering gallery mode resonator (WGMR) supplied with a controllable attenuator. Using the experimental setup we validated theoretical formula describing the SIL spectral purity and identified practical parameters of the system allowing reaching the phase noise limit resulting from the fundamental thermodynamic noise of the resonator. We show that the linewidth improvement due to SIL effect is drastically impacted by the frequency spectral dependence of the phase noise of the laser and that it drops significantly in a flickering laser. We also confirmed that the thermorefractive coefficient as well as mode volume of the WGMR imposes the major limitations on the SIL performance. Low intracavity absorption is needed to suppress the attenuation-related thermal effects in the cavity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We proposed a new reservoir computation (RC) structure using polarization dynamics of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) with optoelectronic feedback. Santa-Fe time-series prediction and nonlinear channel equalization were used to evaluate its parallel processing capability. We numerically discussed the effects of feedback strength, injection strength, frequency detuning, injection current and scaling factors on the RC performance of the system. The results show that, the operation range of negative feedback is larger than that of positive feedback; under appropriate feedback and lager injection strengths, good RC performance can be achieved for a wider injection current; with continuous variation of feedback strength from negative to positive values, the optimized location for frequency detuning moves from positive to negative values. We also evaluated the processing rate of proposed RC structure. The related study is helpful for the design and optimization of VCSEL-based RC under optoelectronic feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Event cameras such as the Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) are useful because of their low latency, sparse output, and high dynamic range. In this paper, we propose a DVS+FPGA camera platform and use it to demonstrate the hardware implementation of event-based corner keypoint detection and adaptive block-matching optical flow. To adapt sample rate dynamically, events are accumulated in event slices using the area event count slice exposure method. The area event count is feedback controlled by the average optical flow matching distance. Corners are detected by streaks of accumulated events on event slice rings of radius 3 and 4 pixels. Corner detection takes about 6 clock cycles (16 MHz event rate at the 100MHz clock frequency) At the corners, flow vectors are computed in 100 clock cycles (1 MHz event rate). The multiscale block match size is $25\times 25$ pixels and the flow vectors span up to 30-pixel match distance. The FPGA processes the sum-of-absolute distance block matching at 123 GOp/s, the equivalent of 1230 Op/clock cycle. EDFLOW is several times more accurate on MVSEC drone and driving optical flow benchmarking sequences than the previous best DVS FPGA optical flow implementation, and achieves similar accuracy to the CNN-based EV-Flownet, although it burns about 100 times less power. The EDFLOW design and benchmarking videos are available at https://sites.google.com/view/edflow21/home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the frame of ongoing efforts between space agencies to define an on-off-keying-based optical low-Earth-orbit (LEO) direct-to-Earth (DTE) waveform, this paper offers an in-depth analysis of the Variable Data Rate (VDR) technique. VDR, in contrast to the currently adopted Constant Data Rate (CDR) approach, enables the optimization of the average throughput during a LEO pass over the optical ground station (OGS). The analysis addresses both critical link level aspects, such as receiver (time, frame, and amplitude) synchronization, as well as demonstrates the benefits stemming from employing VDR at system level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wavelength tunable chaotic external cavity semiconductor laser (ECSL) composed by a distributed-feedback laser diode (DFB-LD) and a broadband chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG), is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for generating tunable chaos signals with time delay signature (TDS) suppression. The experimental results show that by using a CFBG with a 3-dB reflection bandwidth of approximately 30 nm and a low dispersion of approximately 1.25 ps/nm, the chaotic ECSL can be tuned over a wide wavelength range, and the generated chaos possesses a low TDS of about 0.04. With the increase of the bias current of the DFB-LD, the chaotic ECSL is tuned towards long-wavelength direction, the effective bandwidth of the chaotic signal is extended, and the TDS of the chaotic signal remains effectively suppressed. To highlight the advantages of the proposed scheme, relevant experiments for the DFB-LD under fiber mirror feedback and fiber Bragg grating feedback are also performed and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation of angled flip-chip integration of a singlemode 850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) on a silicon nitride photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is presented. Using numerical FDTD simulations, we consider the conditions under which the VCSEL can be integrated at an angle over a grating coupler with high coupling efficiency and low optical feedback. With both coupling efficiency and feedback decreasing with increasing angle, there is a trade-off. With co-directional coupling, first-order diffraction loss sets in at a critical angle, which further reduces the coupling efficiency. No such critical angle exists for contra-directional coupling. We also experimentally demonstrate angled flip-chip integration of GaAs-based 850 nm single transverse and polarization mode VCSELs over grating couplers on a silicon-nitride PIC. At the output grating coupler, light is either collected by an optical fiber or converted to a photocurrent using a flip-chip integrated GaAs-based photodetector. The latter forms an on-PIC optical link. We measured an insertion loss of 21.9, 17.6 and 20.1 dB with a singlemode fiber, multimode fiber and photodetector over the output grating coupler, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose an all-fiber self-mixing velocimeter based on a DBR fiber laser with adjustable injection intensity for the first time, and theoretically and experimentally explore the behavior of fiber lasers in detecting non-cooperative target under different injection intensities. When the ultra-strong injection level is attained, the linewidth of the DBR fiber laser will be narrowed to about 10 kHz, thus extending the coherence distance of laser tremendously. Simultaneously, the intensity noise can be also significantly suppressed. The non-cooperative target velocity measurement with 40 km single-channel transmission distance has been successfully achieved. This velocimeter is shown to be of great significance in the field of remote sensing with simple and compact configuration, and adjustable dynamical monitoring range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed Bragg Reflector semiconductor lasers are ideally suited for quantum technology applications due to their high efficiency, small footprint, and tunability in combination with the frequency stability provided by an integrated frequency selective element. Here we present the design, fabrication, and electro-optical characterization of DBR lasers optimized for strontium-based quantum technology applications at 689.449 nm. The devices achieved an optical output power of up to 88 mW, four times more than previously reported, as well as a spectral linewidth of 0.4 MHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coherent reception becomes an interesting option when data rates in time-division-multiplexed (TDM) passive optical networks (PONs) grow beyond 50 Gbit/s. Controlling the wavelength, i.e., the optical frequency, and the phase of the laser acting as local oscillator (LO) is one of the main technical challenges in the design of coherent TDM PONs. In the optical network units (ONUs), low-cost lasers are required, which come at the expense of wavelength variations and drifts over multiple nanometers due to fabrication imperfections, and temperature variations. This contradicts the requirement of wavelength-stable LOs in coherent receivers. The use of a wavelength locker circuit and a temperature controller is considered as too complex for applications in access networks. In this work, we propose a novel colorless coherent architecture with high resilience to ONU laser wavelength drifts of up to $\pm$ 4 nm ($\pm$ 0.5 THz) for future 100 Gbit/s PON. It allows the use of distributed feedback lasers at the ONU side. This is rendered possible by generating a frequency comb with carefully chosen free spectral range in a quantum-dash mode-locked laser diode at the optical line terminal. In upstream operation, the frequency comb serves as an LO, whereas the same information is modulated onto all comb lines for the case of downstream. As a result, the ONU laser can drift over the entire comb bandwidth without substantial performance penalty. We experimentally demonstrate downstream and upstream operation with an aggregated raw data rate of 96 Gbit/s, respectively. We further introduce advanced digital signal processing (DSP) methods including a coarse frequency offset compensation (CFOC) and a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) equalizer to improve the performance of our concept. We show that the receiver sensitivity can be increased by 3 dB for a high-bandwidth receiver when using a 6 × 2 MIMO equalizer scheme. A 4 × 2 MIMO equalizer scheme enables colorless reception even with a limited-bandwidth receiver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM)-visible laser light communication (VLLC) and white-lighting ring network with a 150-Gbit/s accumulative transmission rate at central station (CS), a 50-Gbit/s transmission rate at optical node, and a 604-lux white-lighting at CS is successfully demonstrated. Red, green, and blue laser diodes employing two-stage injection locking and optoelectronic feedback techniques are utilized to afford the dual functions of high-speed VLLC links and white-light illumination at reading/writing-level. By deploying optical add-drop multiplexing scheme, this newly-built WDM-VLLC and white-lighting ring network is promising since it allows a point-to-multipoint link and a two-way operation in free-space transmission. Impressively low bit error rate of 10−9, clear PAM4 eye diagrams, and qualified white-lighting for reading and writing are achieved through 7.5 m/9 m/10.5 m/12 m VLLC link with 5 m plastic optical fiber transmission. Such constructed WDM-VLLC and white-lighting ring network shows a potential one for the evolution of high-speed VLLC with white-lighting for reading/writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate real-time broadband multi-Gb/s electrical RF synthesizer-free millimeter-wave (MMW) signals generation and wireless transmission at the 5G new radio (NR) frequency band of 47 GHz based on analog radio-over-fiber (A-RoF) fronthaul. This is enabled by a low noise, highly correlated, monolithic C-band semiconductor InAs/InP quantum-dash (QDash) dual-wavelength distributed feedback (DW-DFB) laser. One laser mode is encoded using 4-/6-GBaud multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) (16-/32-/64-QAM) baseband data signals, the other lasing mode is used as an optical local oscillator for optical-heterodyne remote up-conversion to a MMW carrier of 47.27 GHz. Consequently, optical baseband modulated data signals with data capacity up to 36 Gb/s (6-GBaud × 64-QAM) are transmitted through back-to-back (BtB) and 25-/50-km of standard single mode fiber (SSMF) before the MMW carrier is optically synthesized remotely for free space wireless data transmission and detection over up to 9-m. The end-to-end MMW-over-fiber (MMWoF) wireless link is thoroughly characterized exhibiting promising error-vector-magnitude (EVM) and bit-error-rate (BER) values. The 4-/6-GBaud 16-QAM MMWoF wireless links achieve EVMs down to 6.32%/7.33%, 6.71%/7.78%, and 7.35%/8.91% through BtB, 25-km, and 50-km SSMF, respectively. Similarly, the EVM for 32-QAM and 64-QAM links is observed to be 5.56%/6.56% and 6.05%/6.62%, respectively. Moreover, in each case, the calculated BER is below the forward error correction (FEC) limit of 3.8 × 10−3. The results corroborate the potential and viability of the QDash DW-DFB laser as a simple, efficient and cost-effective alternative to individual laser sources for deployment in broadband photonic MMWoF fronthaul systems of 5G wireless networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser emissions at 1.6–1.7 μm band have captured considerable attention in recent years. However, limited by the available emission spectrum of typical rare-earth-ion doped gain fibers, it is extremely difficult to realize highly stable laser output in this wavelength region with a simultaneous high spectral purity and high output power. To address these problems, a cost-effective robust random fiber lasing scheme is proposed to generate the high-power and high-spectral-purity laser output at 1.69 μm. The maximum output power is 7.55 W and the spectral contrast between the output lasing and the pump is as high as 24.3 dB. Both the short-time temporal characteristics and the long-time output power fluctuations are measured, which shows excellent stability and robustness of the laser configuration. This work provides an alternative approach to realize high-performance 1.6–1.7 μm band lasing output which is of particular significance for potential applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultra-stable lasers serve as the backbone for the most advanced optical metrology scientific experiments, enabling the ability to laser interferometry or atomic spectroscopy at the highest levels of precision, thanks to the rapid development of laser wavelength stabilization techniques based on optical or electrical feedback from an external reference such as absorption line or optical cavity. With the increasing interest in making these scientific systems portable and applying it outside of the laboratory, it still remains an open question as to how to realize a laser source that can reach the high wavelength stabilization and still remain sufficiently compact and portable for field use. Here, we describe a wavelength stabilization fiber laser with intracavity reference mechanism, by utilizing the beat note of dual modes inside the laser cavity as the laser wavelength drift reference signal. A laser wavelength drift less than 5 kHz and ADEV 10−13 level at integration time scales from 0.01s to 1000s is achieved, which is to-date the best results for the laser wavelength stabilization without the external frequency reference. The outcome of this work presents a new way to achieve an ultra-stable laser with a simpler, lower cost feature. It offers new insights to promote the highest precision optical metrology scientific application outside of the laboratory, and also gives the possibilities of applying the ultra-stable laser source into a wider range of industrial application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated polarization stabilizers along with corresponding stabilizing algorithms have been investigated for years to tackle the polarization fluctuation issue in polarization dependent systems such as photonics integrated circuits and coherent optical communication systems. Here, we propose and demonstrate a novel integrated polarization stabilizer which is composed of an in-line polarimeter and two cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometers-based polarization converter, with a footprint of 2.8 mm × 0.8 mm. Benefitting from the integrated in-line polarimeter and two controlling algorithms, namely feed-forward tracking algorithm and feedback tracking algorithm, the stabilizer can track the incoming light with arbitrary state of polarization in one-time manipulation. The whole process consumes about 30 μs, which is approaching the limitation of the response time of the adopted thermal phase shifters, making the proposed device the fastest one with thermal phase shifters on silicon photonics platform. Meanwhile, the incoming light is endlessly tracked in real time and 99% converted to horizontal linear polarized light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpolating video frames involving large motions remains an elusive challenge. In case that frames involve small and fast-moving objects, conventional feed-forward neural network-based approaches that estimate optical flow and synthesize in-between frames sequentially often result in loss of motion features and thus blurred boundaries. To address the problem, we propose a novel Recurrent Motion-Enhanced Interpolation Network (ReMEI-Net) by assigning attention to the motion features of small objects from both the intra-scale and inter-scale perspectives. Specifically, we add recurrent feedback blocks in the existing multi-scale autoencoder pipeline, aiming to iteratively enhance the motion information of small objects across different scales. Second, to further refine the motion features of the highly moving objects, we propose a Multi-Directional ConvLSTM (MD-ConvLSTM) block to capture the global spatial contextual information of motion from multiple directions. In this way, the coarse-scale features can be utilized to correct and enhance the fine-scale features through the feedback mechanism. Extensive experiments on various datasets demonstrate the superiority of our proposed method over state-of-the-art approaches in terms of clear locations and complete shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A DBR-laser-based SOA-assisted extended-reach EML (AXEL) was investigated in order to improve the optical feedback tolerance. The performance was tested in relative intensity noise measurement and fiber transmission experiment. A superior optical feedback tolerance was obtained in comparison with a conventional AXEL. The excess RIN induced by optical feedback is suppressed at 3-dB higher feedback power for the DBR-AXEL. 40 km fiber transmission of 10-Gbit/s signal with a feedback factor of −15 dB was achieved. The power budget was 41.3 dB. The feedback-induced power penalty was 0.52 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is focused on a systematic investigation of the circuits for active stabilization of the frequency offset between two semiconductorn ultra-accurate fiber optic time transfer systems. The frequency offset is increased up to 50 GHz, which can be achieved not only with relatively low-noise integrated tunable laser assemblies, but also with ordinary, telecom-grade, distributed feedback lasers. The paper starts by determining the general frequency accuracy and stability, required to keep the uncertainty contribution of the stabilization circuit at a negligible level (assumed here as 1 ps) compared to other contributions of the overall uncertainty of the link calibration. Next, the technical details of the essential building block of the system discussed, which is required to convert the high-frequency offset to lower frequencies to allow convenient frequency measurement, are analyzed. Experimental circuits built with commercially available millimeter wave integrated circuits were tested with the frequency offset complying with telecom dense wavelength division multiplex standards, equal to 12.5 GHz, 25 GHz and 50 GHz. It was found that such stabilization circuits can cause substantial systematic errors, which are related to lasers’ phase noise and the operation with low input optical powers (below −39 dBm in evaluated circuits). These effects were investigated experimentally in detail and countermeasures were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interrogating a remote passive-sensor with high fidelity is one of the biggest challenges in the sensing domain. Recently, random fiber laser (RFL) combined with remote fiber sensors was proposed for optical fiber sensing with high signal-to-noise ratio over ultra-long-distance fiber link. However, only quasi-static sensing has been demonstrated. In this work, a novel dynamic sensing scheme based on backward-pumped random fiber laser is proposed, and its sensing bandwidth is both theoretically and experimentally studied. Particularly, a Raman-gain-modulated power-balance model reveals that the RFL intensity has instantaneous and linear response to remote feedback disturbances, laying the ground for ultra-high-bandwidth sensing; in a proof-of-concept experiment, RFL with 100 km fiber and a far-end fiber Bragg grating is used for dynamic strain sensing, and 65 kHz dynamic sensing is achieved, the sensing bandwidth of which is two orders higher than that determined by the lightwave round-trip time as in the pulse-probing cases. This work paves the way for ultra-high-bandwidth and ultra-long-distance interrogation for optical fiber sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We for the first time present an all-passive cascaded optical frequency transfer technique over a fiber link, in which the phase noise of the each fiber link introduced by environmental perturbation and the laser repeater station are simultaneously compensated by using passive phase noise cancellation. The laser repeater station consisting of a cavity-stabilized laser is employed as a regenerative amplifier with a 45 dB optical gain. We demonstrate a cascaded optical frequency transfer with two 100 km spooled fiber links and one laser repeater station, illustrating an instability of $4.8\times 10^{-15}$ at the integration of 1 s and $4.9\times 10^{-19}$ at 10,000 s improved by a factor of 2 compared to the single-span 200 km fiber link. Dividing the whole fiber link into sub-sections could significantly improve the bandwidth of the phase noise compensation. Additionally, all-passive phase noise cancellation has the advantage of avoiding the servo bumps in the transferred light relative to the conventional active technique. The proposed technique provides a promising solution for high-performance and robust long-distance optical frequency transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In robots, nonprehensile manipulation operations such as pushing are a useful way of moving large, heavy, or unwieldy objects, moving multiple objects at once, or reducing uncertainty in the location or pose of objects. In this study, we propose a reactive and adaptive method for robotic pushing that uses rich feedback from a high-resolution optical tactile sensor to control push movements instead of relying on analytical or data-driven models of push interactions. Specifically, we use goal-driven tactile exploration to actively search for stable pushing configurations that cause the object to maintain its pose relative to the pusher while incrementally moving the pusher and object toward the target. We evaluate our method by pushing objects across planar and curved surfaces. For planar surfaces, we show that the method is accurate and robust to variations in initial contact position/angle, object shape, and start position; for curved surfaces, the performance is degraded slightly. An immediate consequence of our work is that it shows that explicit models of push interactions might be sufficient but are not necessary for this type of task. It also raises the interesting question of which aspects of the system should be modeled to achieve the best performance and generalization across a wide range of scenarios. Finally, it highlights the importance of testing on nonplanar surfaces and in other more complex environments when developing new methods for robotic pushing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work the optical feedback generated by a tapered amplifier (TPA) emitting at 1120 nm is characterized at different operational conditions. The TPA is operated in a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) configuration, while the influence of pump current or seed power on the emitted feedback is investigated. Measurements are also performed with the TPA exposed to defined external optical feedback. For an estimation of the feedback from the TPA a simple formula is derived and the calculations are compared to the measurement results. With the experimental and theoretical results the required feedback resistance of the master oscillator seed source can be defined and the MOPA system optimized for certain applications with unwanted optical feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A semiconductor laser with optical feedback and optical injection is an appealing scheme to construct the time-delay reservoir computing (TDRC) networks. Quantum dot (QD) lasers are compatible to the silicon platform, and hence is helpful to develop fully on-chip TDRCs. This work theoretically demonstrates a parallel TDRC based on a Fabry-Perot QD laser with multiple longitudinal modes. These modes act as connected physical neurons, which process the input signal in parallel. The interaction strength of the modes is characterized by the cross-gain saturation effect. We show that the neuron interaction strength affects the performance of various benchmark tasks, including the memory capacity, time series prediction, nonlinear channel equalization, and spoken digit recognition. In comparison with the one-channel TDRC with the same number of nodes, the parallel TDRC runs faster and its performance is improved on multiple benchmark tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The back-reflection of emitted laser beam (optical feedback, also know as selfmixing) from various external interfaces are sufficient to cause instability, and prohibiting its use in various fields such as communication, spectroscopy, imaging to name a few. So it is desirable to study the laser dynamics and the conditions causing it to be stable in spite of strong optical feedback. With the aid of mathematical formulation, simulation and backed by experimental evidences, it is demonstrated that the frequency deviation of the laser emission due to current (intensity) modulation alters the dynamic state and boundary conditions of the system such that even under large optical feedback strength, the laser may attain stability and retain single modal state. The frequency deviation resulting from former is shown to modify the phase of the system in opposite direction to that induced by the later, showing that there exists an optimal modulation current which compensates the effect of optical feedback and may be used to retain the laser in single modal stationary state. The method thus provides a methodology to avoid optical feedback-induced instability in semiconductor lasers by using the proper amplitude of current (intensity) modulation.

A tunable narrow-linewidth photonic terahertz (THz) carrier generation scheme using a distributed-Bragg-reflector-based mode-locked laser diode (MLLD) with optical feedback and mode filtering technique is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Photonic terahertz carrier covering the D-band (110–170 GHz), and H-band (220–325 GHz) was obtained. With the assistance of the feedback loop, the optical linewidth of the MLLD was reduced from MHz to kHz level, and the heterodyning photonics carrier linewidth was reduced from 121.7 kHz to 2.1 kHz, satisfying the linewidth tolerance in the THz communication system with high-order modulation formats.

Miniaturized endoscopic scanners have had a significant impact on high-resolution optical imaging. Technological advancements in micro-electromechanical systems and optical fiber technology have resulted in various optical-mechanical configurations designed to fulfill specific requirements. However, it is still challenging to provide comprehensive, undistorted images with high-resolution images of target samples. This paper reviews the optical imaging techniques utilized in cantilever-based endoscopic scanners by analyzing and comparing their key performances, pros and cons, and corresponding optical components needed to develop the system. The concept of multimodal imaging is then highlighted by discussing its principle and current status in endoscopic scanners. We also reviewed the scanning configurations concerning their mechanical components, general structures, and drive signals for different scanning patterns. The feedback control aspect in endoscopic scanners is then highlighted. We discuss its role in mitigating undesired nonlinear vibration effects and provide a survey of the current implementations. Finally, we discuss the endoscopic scanners’ current and potential applications, artificial intelligence techniques in image reconstruction, and disease detection and provide recommendations on endoscopic scanner system design for future reference.

An InP-based mode-locked laser photonic integrated circuit with a repetition rate of 10 GHz is optically synchronized to a SiN microresonator-based dissipative Kerr soliton with a repetition rate of 305 GHz. The synchronization is achieved through regenerative harmonic injection locking assisted with electro-optic division which results in an optical frequency division factor of 18. The repetition rate of the dissipative Kerr soliton is stabilized through electro-optic division and transferred to the mode-locked laser, where we measure a fractional frequency instability in the repetition rate of $10^{-10}$ at 1 s with a $1/\tau$ trend. Furthermore, we also stabilize the repetition rate of the dissipative Kerr soliton using the mode-locked laser’s repetition rate beat as a feedback point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of optical buffers for packet contention resolution has been recognized as a key issue in all-optical packet switching. One of the most general buffering schemes is priority queues, which includes first-in first-out (FIFO) queues and last-in first-out (LIFO) queues as special cases. In a priority queue, each packet is associated with a unique priority upon its arrival, the packet with the highest priority is sent out from the queue whenever there is a departure request and there are packets in the queue, and the packet with the lowest priority is dumped from the queue whenever there is a buffer overflow. In this paper, we consider the constructions of optical priority queues by using a feedback system consisting of an optical (bufferless) crossbar switch and multiple optical FIFO multiplexers with delay one (FM1’s) in the feedback path for buffering packets and feeding packets back to the switch. Such a feedback system is a generalization of that used in one of the authors’ earlier attempt for the constructions of optical priority queues in Tang et al. (2020). We fix the no-buffering problem in Tang et al. (2020) by using optical FM1’s to replace the optical FIFO multiplexers (FM’s) in Tang et al. (2020), which enables us to successfully achieve an exact emulation of a priority queue. We improve the utilization of buffering capacity over that in Tang et al. (2020) by routing packets to the optical FM1’s according to their buffering tags instead of their tags as used in Tang et al. (2020). We also extend and generalize the construction in Tang et al. (2020) and obtain a much larger class of constructions of optical priority queues. Our constructions are made possible by showing that the highest-priority (resp., lowest-priority) packet is always available at the input links of the switch whenever it needs to be routed to the departure (resp., loss) link, and by showing that there is no collision and there is no buffer overflow at any FM1 at any time so that there is no internal packet loss at any time. Our complexity analysis shows that by using a feedback system consisting of an optical $(M+2) \times (M+2)$ (bufferless) crossbar switch and $M$ fiber delay lines, we can achieve a buffer size of $2^{O(\sqrt {\alpha M})}$ , where $\alpha $ is a constant that depends on the parameters used in our constructions. Furthermore, we show that the best buffer size that we can achieve is $2^{O(\sqrt {4M/15})}$. Our result (exponential in $\sqrt {M}$) substantially improves on the best known result (polynomial in $M$) in the literature. Our numerical results show that the construction complexity of our constructions is lower than that of the construction in Tang et al. (2020), and the actual saving, in terms of the number of $2\times 2$ switches needed, by our constructions could be quite significant even in the tiny-buffer and small-buffer regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With on-chip integration enabled, resonant integrated optical gyroscope (RIOG) is a promising choice of rotation rate sensor in the novel micro inertial navigation systems. However, various optical errors, especially the backward-light-related errors including backscattering error and back-reflection error caused by the manufacturing process and heterogeneous materials in the optical elements, limit the performance of RIOG. Here, we propose the frequency spectrum separation method to suppress the backward-light-related errors for improving the detection precision of RIOG. The method can separate the angular velocity signal from the backward-light-related errors in the frequency domain. And, we investigate the optimal strategy of modulation frequencies to obtain maximum spectrum gaps of clockwise and counter-clockwise light for suppressing the backward-light-related errors, and simultaneously maintain maximum demodulation gain and minimum nonlinearity of optical effect for improving detection sensitivity. With the frequency spectrum separation method, the long-term bias stability of RIOG achieves 0.3°/h based on Allan deviation, which is the best reported result to the best of our knowledge. The proposed method of backward-light-related errors suppression can significantly improve the detection precision of RIOG based on a photonic chip, which contributes to the application of RIOG in the novel micro inertial navigation field such as cluster unmanned aerial vehicles and micro-nano satellites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel multi-channel chaos generation scheme, which can simultaneously produce multiple chaotic signals with wideband spectrum and suppressed time-delay signature (TDS). In this scheme, we introduce an external self-phase-modulated feedback (ESPMF) to improve the optical bandwidth of the initial chaos generated by a conventional external-cavity semiconductor laser (ECSL), then optical tunable filters (OTFs) are utilized to simultaneously extract three-channel chaotic outputs. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme has three main advantages. Firstly, it can simultaneously generate multiple chaotic outputs with different central wavelengths and low correlations. Secondly, the bandwidth of original ECSL-based chaos can be improved by several times, and the undesired TDS characteristics in the original chaos can be completely suppressed to an indistinguishable level (lower than 0.02). Thirdly, the bandwidths of these chaotic outputs are flexible and can be adjusted within a wide range of 20 GHz by controlling the filter bandwidths. In addition, we demonstrate an application of the proposed chaos generation scheme in random bit generation (RBG), and multi-channel high-speed random bit sequences with a total generation rate over Tb/s and NIST verified randomness are simultaneously obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new dither technique is presented to control the bias voltage of an intensity modulator of the Mach-Zehnder type to maintain the quadrature operating point. This method is based on the direct calculation of the operating point deviation. The calculation uses an exact mathematical model of the modulator. The data used for calculating the deviation value are obtained from an analysis based on a fast Fourier transform with a properly set level of vector averaging. Unlike other solutions, the proposed feedback system does not use an approach with a proportional-integral or proportional-integral-derivative controller. Moreover, the presented stabilization method is robust and invariant regarding changes in the input optical power of the modulator and immune to prospective fluctuations of most of the feedback loop parameters. With the proposed approach in its present form, a 3-hour stability of ±0.08° is achieved. This value reflects the limitations of the equipment used. Even better results can be expected using more powerful hardware. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a 3-D-integrated opto-electrical receiver (RX) analog front end (AFE) operating up to 50 Gb/s. The electronic integrated circuit (EIC) is fabricated in ST SiGe BiCMOS-55-nm technology and flipped and mounted on top of the ST photonic integrated circuits (PICs) die through copper pillars (Cu-Pi). In the RX chain, a low-power fully differential shunt-feedback trans-impedance amplifier (FD SF-TIA) is exploited to reduce the input-referred noise. Following the TIA, a postamplifier (PA) based on a novel active feedback circuit topology extends the bandwidth (BW) and a buffer delivers the output electrical signal to the 100- $\Omega $ differential off-chip load. An automatic offset cancellation loop is included to protect the RX from any offset source at the input. The RX AFE consumes 56 mW from 1.8-V supply voltage and provides a trans-impedance (TI) gain of $78.7~\Omega $ with 27-GHz BW. By exploiting the FD SF-TIA with low parasitic capacitance of the germanium photodiodes (Ge-PD) in the photonic die as well as BW recovery by the PA, the RX achieves the sensitivity of −7.5-dBm OMA at Ge-PD and −2.3-dBm OMA at the single-mode fiber (SMF) optical output with bit error rate (BER) of <10−12 and PRBS-7. To the author’s best knowledge, among published state-of-the-art 50-Gb/s TIAs and RX exploiting SiGe BiCMOS technologies, this work proves the best energy efficiency ((pJ/bit)) and figure of merit (FoM) ($({\text {Gbps}}/{\mu \text {A.mW}})$) in terms of sensitivity and power consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analog photonic computing has been proposed and tested in recent years as an alternative approach for data recovery in fiber transmission systems. Photonic reservoir computing, performing nonlinear transformations of the transmitted signals and exhibiting internal fading memory, has been found advantageous for this kind of processing. In this work, we show that the effectiveness of the internal fading memory depends significantly on the properties of the signal to be processed. Specifically, we demonstrate two experimental photonic post-processing schemes for a 56 GBaud PAM-4 experimental transmission system, with 100 km uncompensated standard single-mode fiber and direct detection. We show that, for transmission systems with significant chromatic dispersion, the contribution of a photonic reservoir's fading memory to the computational performance is limited. In a comparison between the data recovery performances between a reservoir computing and an extreme learning machine fiber-based configuration, we find that both offer equivalent data recovery. The extreme learning machine approach eliminates the necessity of external recurrent connectivity, which simplifies the system and increases the computation speed. Above 31 dB OSNR, the photonics-based equalization exhibits a lower BER than the respective offline DSP-based KK receiver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple method to regulate the single-mode lasing intensity of semiconductor lasers without wavelength shift is demonstrated in this paper. The basic component is a digital micro-mirror device (DMD), which can be taken as an adjustable two-dimensional grating by its special structure. The lasing peak wavelength and peak intensity are respectively regulated by the DMD angular position and the DMD setting. The lasing peak wavelength could be tuned over by rotating the DMD. Meanwhile, the lasing peak intensity could be regulated by the DMD setting, which generates optical feedback digitally. The regulating speed is very high (up to 10 kHz) and has no wavelength shift in the lasing mode, which is more stable and faster than the conventional method.

A semi-analytical dimensionless formula is presented for predicting the period-one frequency of an optically-injected laser over a wide range of injection powers and positive detunings. The result shows that for any given injected optical power, there exists an optimal detuning at which the period-one frequency is maximized. The formula is applied to a tabletop optical injection system with a commercially-available quantum-well distributed feedback laser with previously unknown design parameters. By extrapolating the linearity of the period-one frequencies at zero-detuning and weak-injection regimes, the physical control parameters of the laser are approximated to the analytical formula for wide ranges of injection powers and positive detunings. The accuracy of the model is experimentally verified, achieving period-one frequencies as high as 84.7 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Injecting a spectrally pure oscillator signal into a noisy optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) can result in a drastic reduction of the phase noise; however, a unified explanation of this effect may be obscured by implementation-specific models. We show based on an analytically tractable theory that the power spectral density $S_f(\omega)$ of an ideal injection-locked (IL) oscillator signal is composed of a narrow Lorentzian peak at the center frequency lying on top of a broader roughly Lorentzian pedestal using an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model obtained from the Adler equation in the weak-noise limit. The injected signal imposes its phase on the IL oscillator providing a restoring force for the phase, leading to this fundamentally different behavior of $S_f(\omega)$ compared with a self-sustaining oscillator. Our treatment is shown to be grounded in the physics-based approach for IL OEOs of A. F. Talla, R. Martinenghi, G. R. Goune Chengui, J. H. Talla Mbé, K. Saleh, A. Coillet, G. Lin, P. Woufo, and Y. K. Chembo, “Analysis of phase-locking in narrow-band optoelectronic oscillators with intermediate frequency,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 51, 5000108, 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A direct-modulation OEO (DM-OEO) generating stable 10 GHz and 20 GHz signals is presented. A single loop and a dual loop approach are implemented and compared. We show an output signal of 15 dBm RF power, and a phase noise as low as −135 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset from the 10 GHz carrier. The 20 GHz second harmonic exhibits a noise level of −127 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz. A high spur level reduction is also obtained in the dual loop architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photonics-based techniques spearhead the generation of high-frequency signals in the millimeter-and Terahertz wave, crucial for ultrabroadband mobile wireless link development. Photonic integration is enabling to provide the photonic approach with added advantages of energy-efficiency, flexibility and scalability, in addition to signal quality. We present an optical heterodyne system based on a novel dual laser module containing two InP-Si3N4 hybrid lasers with intracavity wavelength selective optical filters with output optical power per laser of up to 15 dBm (31 mW), wide wavelength tuning of about 60 nm, and narrow optical linewidth below 100 kHz. To the best of our knowledge, we present for the first time the continuous-wave generation of RF frequencies over a wide tuning range from C-band (4 GHz – 8-GHz) to W-band (75 GHz – 110 GHz) achieving record low RF electrical linewidth around 108 kHz and long-term drift < 12 MHz with two free-running lasers. This is the best beat-note linewidth obtained with such an integrated source in a free-runnning regime and with a wide tuning range ever reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter presents the first vector network analyzer based subterahertz (sub-THz) phase-compensated channel sounder at 220–330 GHz using radio-over-fiber techniques that could enable long-range phase-coherent measurements. The optical cable solution enables long-range channel measurements at sub-THz bands, since it can effectively minimize the cable loss. This letter also proposes a novel phase compensation scheme to stabilize the phase variations introduced by optical fiber of the channel sounder to enable its application in multichannel/antenna measurements. This proposed channel sounder is validated in back-to-back measurements under two optical cable conditions, i.e., with presence of thermal changes and mechanical stress. The phase variation introduced by the cable effects in the system is shown to be over $400^\circ$ in 220–330 GHz, compared to $15^\circ$ at 220–288 GHz and $37^\circ$ in 288–330 GHz after compensation, respectively, demonstrating the robustness and effectiveness of the developed channel sounder in practice. The developed system, which has a dynamic range of 106.7 dB, can support measurement range up to 300 m (limited by the optical cable length in our system and subject to over-the-air signal transmission loss in practical environment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents design, fabrication, characterization, and experimental verification of a new sensing method (soft optical sensing) for pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) actuators. Soft optical waveguides are designed and fabricated using the proposed modified stiffness concept for soft sensors. The design of the sensor allows us to measure both contraction and force of a PAM actuator under loaded conditions. This proposed method makes it possible to have a highly sensitive actuator system with linear contraction sensing. The sensorized PAMs are supposed to work in high-pressure applications with the ability to be used repeatedly without significant degradation in signal quality. To characterize and validate the proposed method, two PAM actuators make use of two separately designed test systems to plot and model the characteristic curves. Finally, the validation for control is provided using measured sensor data as feedback to the controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parasitic motion corrupts the measurement of all non-contact sensor systems. It thus hinders deployment of these sensors for such real-world applications where it is impossible to keep the sensor perfectly stationary. In this paper, an adaptive algorithm is presented to remove parasitic vibrations corrupting the measurements of a self-mixing (SM) interferometric laser sensor. Previously, this was achieved by coupling a solid state accelerometer (SSA) with the SM sensor followed by either a pre-calibration based design or a time-domain adaptive filter based system. The proposed method is based on adaptive spectral filtering where filter coefficients are derived based on the parasitic vibrations present in the retrieved target motion. Importantly, it neither requires any pre-calibration procedure nor has any dependence on parameters such as filter-order, convergence criteria, or step-size (required in case of time-domain adaptive filters), thus making the proposed scheme a suitable choice for mass production of SSA-SM sensor systems. The proposed algorithm provides improved mean RMS error of 5.37 nm as opposed to 19.1 nm for least mean square (LMS) filter, 20.22 nm for recursive least square (RLS) filter, and 24.7 nm for pre-calibration based system. This method’s performance has also been characterized and an embedded, real-time, hardware design is also presented. At the end, hardware system results (on experimental data-set) and sensor bounds/bandwidth are also quantified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wavelength-dependent power excursions in gain-controlled erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) is a challenging issue in optical networks. We investigate a launch channel power control method using reinforcement learning (RL) to mitigate the power excursions of EDFA systems. A machine learning engine is developed, trained and evaluated with four different policy-gradient RL algorithms that are compared according to two main criteria: achieved power excursion reduction and learning time. Different scenarios are considered with 12-, 24-, 40- active channels at fixed wavelengths and with variable number of active channels (between 12 and 64) assigned randomly at different wavelengths during RL process. We show 62% power excursion reduction in the 40-channel scenario and 28% in the variable scenario, which demonstrates the promising role of online RL approach for controlling power excursion in EDFA systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating photonics with CMOS electronics in silicon is essential to enable chip-scale, electronic-photonic systems that will revolutionize classical and quantum communication and computing systems. However, the lack of an on-silicon isolator, capable of blocking unwanted back reflections and ensuring the stable operation of the laser, precluded many previous demonstrations from providing single-chip solutions. For most optical systems employing a laser, magneto-optic isolators have been indispensable, but such isolators are incompatible with silicon. To stabilize on-chip lasers, reflections-cancellation circuits were proposed as a way to reduce the reflections going back to the laser. Yet, a stable laser against time-varying back reflections was never demonstrated. Here we demonstrate a stable quantum well-distributed feedback (QWDFB) laser against slowly time-varying reflections using a reflections-cancellation circuit (RCC) on a foundry-produced, silicon-photonic (SiP) chip. The optical spectrum and the relative intensity noise (RIN) of the laser when the RCC was running is comparable to when an isolator was used. By accurately locking the laser in a stable optical feedback regime, the RCC further enhances the QWDFB laser performance by reducing its linewidth by a factor of 100, down to 3 kHz. Both results are enabled using novel techniques in the design, calibration, tuning, and control of the proposed SiP RCC. The optical insertion loss of the RCC is less than 1.5 dB for reflections smaller than −20 dB and can yield isolation ranges of up to 64 dB. Our device paves the way towards the mass production of fully integrated, low-cost electronic-photonic silicon chips without attaching magneto-optic isolators between the laser and the SiP chip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method of generating flat broadband chaos by using a semiconductor laser subject to asymmetric dual-path optical feedback is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. In the asymmetric dual-path optical feedback, one path is connected with an optical band-pass filter (OBPF) to form filtered path, and the other is a traditional optical feedback path named non-filtered path. Through the beating frequency effect between the filtered mode and the non-filtered chaos mode, a chaotic signal with the standard bandwidth of 36.1 GHz and the spectrum flatness of 5.8 dB is generated experimentally. Furthermore, the effects of filter frequency detuning, filter bandwidth and feedback strength on the bandwidth and flatness of chaos are investigated. The results show that the bandwidth enhancement and the flat spectrum can be achieved simultaneously in a wide range of operating parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on a simple approach of time-delayed reservoir computing (RC) based on a two-element phased laser array for image identification. Here the phased laser array with optical feedback and injection is trained according to the representative characteristics extracted through histograms of oriented gradients. These characteristic vectors are multiplied by a random mask signal to form input data, which are subsequently trained in the reservoir. By optimizing the parameters of the RC, we achieve an identification accuracy of 97.44% on the MNIST dataset and 85.46% on the Fashion-MNIST dataset. These results indicate that our proposed RC indeed allows accurate classification of handwritten digit and fashion production. Moreover, we further forecast an RC scheme based on a larger-scale phased laser array, which is expected to tackle more complex tasks at a high speed. Our work offers a possibility for advanced image processing using highly integrated neuromorphic photonic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synchronization is a long-standing challenge in modern large-scale distributed systems, and newly deployed systems such as 5G and modern netted radars require more extensive synchronization. As the number of distributed stations increasing, new synchronization solution with much effort on extensibility is highly expected. In this paper we first analyze the requirements on extensibility of fiber-based sync systems, and then propose a phase-stabilized side-branch radio-over-fiber (RoF) link, which fully satisfies the extensibility requirements. The extensible side-branch link can be constructed at any intermediate point along the main link, without any reconfiguration at the central station, which is especially feasible when adding extra stations in system capacity expansion. The main link phase shift is first stabilized by tuning the optical carrier wavelength, while another phase-locked-loop constructed at the starting point of the branch link stabilizes the phase shift from the central station to the end of branch link, by phase locking two phase-varying signals. Moreover, the phase-stable side branch is inherently extensible to multiple frequency signals, which can be used in receivers requiring multiple local oscillators (LOs). Two frequency signals are simultaneously disseminated to the end of branch link in the experiment, with frequency stability optimization of two orders of magnitude on both LOs achieved. The proposed stable side-branch RoF link shows the potential of constructing a highly-extensible frequency dissemination network for the synchronization in modern distributed systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new sensing method based on the measurement of the second-order autocorrelation of the output of micro- and nanolasers with intensity feedback. The sensing function is implemented through the feedback-induced threshold shift, whose photon statistics is controlled by the feedback level in a characteristic way for different laser sizes. The specific response offers performances which can be adapted to different kinds of sensors. We propose the implementation of two schemes capable of providing a quantitative sensing signal and covering a broad range of feedback levels: one is utilizing the evolution of $\text{g}^{(2)}$ (0), the other one is the ratio between central and side peaks in $\text{g}^{(2)}$ ($\tau $). Laser-threshold-based sensing could, thanks to its potential sensitivity, gain relevance in biomolecular diagnostics and security monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-speed, low-power optical interconnects, such as intensity modulation direct detection (IMDD) optical links, are increasingly deployed in data centers to keep pace with the growing bandwidth requirements. High-sensitivity low-power optical receivers (RXs) are the key components that enable energy-efficient IMDD optical interconnects. This article presents a low-power nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) optical RX using a combination of a limited-bandwidth trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) and duobinary sampling to improve RX sensitivity at high data rates. Duobinary sampling leverages the well-controlled TIA inter-symbol interference (ISI) to recover the transmitted data, making it much more hardware efficient than canceling the ISI using a decision feedback equalizer (DFE). The proposed optical RX employs a CMOS-based analog front-end (AFE) to achieve high linearity and excellent power efficiency. Fabricated in 65-nm CMOS process, the prototype RX achieves optical modulation amplitude (OMA) sensitivity of −11.6 dBm at 16 Gb/s with 0.7-pJ/bit efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]