Application of the fractional Fourier transform to the design of LCOS based optical interconnects and fiber switches

It is shown that reflective liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) spatial light modulator (SLM) based interconnects or fiber switches that use defocus to reduce crosstalk can be evaluated and optimized using a fractional Fourier transform if certain optical symmetry conditions are met. Theoretically the maximum allowable linear hologram phase error compared to a Fourier switch is increased by a factor of six before the target crosstalk for telecom applications of -40 dB is exceeded. A Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm incorporating a fractional Fourier transform modified for use with a reflective LCOS SLM is used to optimize multi-casting holograms in a prototype telecom switch. Experiments are in close agreement to predicted performance. © 2012 Optical Society of America.

Regenerative polymeric bus architecture for board-level optical interconnects

A scalable multi-channel optical regenerative bus architecture based on the use of polymer waveguides is presented for the first time. The architecture offers high-speed interconnection between electrical cards allowing regenerative bus extension with multiple segments and therefore connection of an arbitrary number of cards onto the bus. In a proof-ofprinciple demonstration, a 4-channel 3-card polymeric bus module is designed and fabricated on standard FR4 substrates. Low insertion losses (≤ -15 dB) and low crosstalk values (< -30 dB) are achieved for the fabricated samples while better than ± 6 μm -1 dB alignment tolerances are obtained. 10 Gb/s data communication with a bit-error-rate (BER) lower than 10-12 is demonstrated for the first time between card interfaces on two different bus modules using a prototype 3R regenerator. © 2012 Optical Society of America.

Gigabit NRZ, CAP and optical OFDM systems over POF links using LEDs

Simulations have been performed to compare the system capacity and power dissipation of NRZ, CAP-64 and 64-QAM-OFDM systems over FEC enhanced POF links using LEDs, for both unidirectional and bidirectional transmission. It is shown that CAP-64 outperforms NRZ and 64-QAM-OFDM in terms of system capacity and supports a record high 3.5Gb/s bidirectional and 2.1Gb/s unidirectional transmissions over 50m POF. The CAP-64 transceiver consumes similar power compared with NRZ whilst the 64-QAM-OFDM transceiver consumes about twice as much. © 2012 Optical Society of America.

Tm-doped fiber laser mode-locked by graphene-polymer composite

We demonstrate mode-locking of a thulium-doped fiber laser operating at 1.94 μm, using a graphene-polymer based saturable absorber. The laser outputs 3.6 ps pulses, with ∼0.4 nJ energy and an amplitude fluctuation ∼0.5%, at 6.46 MHz. This is a simple, low-cost, stable and convenient laser oscillator for applications where eye-safe and low-photon-energy light sources are required, such as sensing and biomedical diagnostics. © 2012 Optical Society of America.

Nonlinear optics in Silicon photonic crystal cavities

Silicon is known to be a very good material for the realization of high-Q, low-volume photonic cavities, but at the same it is usually considered as a poor material for nonlinear optical functionalities like second-harmonic generation, because its second-order nonlinear susceptibility vanishes in the dipole approximation. In this work we demonstrate that nonlinear optical effects in silicon nanocavities can be strongly enhanced and even become macroscopically observable. We employ photonic crystal nanocavities in silicon membranes that are optimized simultaneously for high quality factor and efficient coupling to an incoming beam in the far field. Using a low-power, continuous-wave laser at telecommunication wavelengths as a pump beam, we demonstrate simultaneous generation of second- and third harmonics in the visible region, which can be observed with a simple camera. The results are in good agreement with a theoretical model that treats third-harmonic generation as a bulk effect in the cavity region, and second-harmonic generation as a surface effect arising from the vertical hole sidewalls. Optical bistability is also observed in the silicon nanocavities and its physical mechanisms (optical, due to two-photon generation of free carriers, as well as thermal) are investigated. © 2011 IEEE.

Subwavelength plasmonics for graded-index optics on a chip.

Planar plasmonic devices are becoming attractive for myriad applications, owing to their potential compatibility with standard microelectronics technology and the capability for densely integrating a large variety of plasmonic devices on a chip. Mitigating the challenges of using plasmonics in on-chip configurations requires precise control over the properties of plasmonic modes, in particular their shape and size. Here we achieve this goal by demonstrating a planar plasmonic graded-index lens focusing surface plasmons propagating along the device. The plasmonic mode is manipulated by carving subwavelength features into a dielectric layer positioned on top of a uniform metal film, allowing the local effective index of the plasmonic mode to be controlled using a single binary lithographic step. Focusing and divergence of surface plasmons is demonstrated experimentally. The demonstrated approach can be used for manipulating the propagation of surface plasmons, e.g., for beam steering, splitting, cloaking, mode matching, and beam shaping applications.

Near field phase mapping exploiting intrinsic oscillations of aperture NSOM probe

An innovative, simple, compact and low cost approach for phase mapping based on the intrinsic modulation of an aperture Near Field Scanning Optical Microscope probe is analyzed and experimentally demonstrated. Several nanoscale silicon waveguides are phase-mapped using this approach, and the different modes of propagation are obtained via Fourier analysis. The obtained measured results are in good agreement with the effective indexes of the modes calculated by electromagnetic simulations. Owing to its simplicity and effectiveness, the demonstrated system is a potential candidate for integration with current near field systems for the characterization of nanophotonic components and devices. © 2011 Optical Society of America.

Glass-polymer superlattice for integrated optics

Glass and polymer interstacked superlattice like nanolayers were fabricated by nanosecond-pulsed laser deposition with a 193-nm-ultraviolet laser. The individual layer thickness of this highly transparent thin film could be scaled down to 2 nm, proving a near atomic scale deposition of complex multilayered optical and electronic materials. The layers were selectively doped with Er3\+ and Eu3\+ ions, making it optically active and targeted for integrated sensor application. © The Authors.