Parametric study of femtosecond inscription of microstructures for OCT artefact fabrication

As optical coherence tomography (OCT) becomes widespread, validation and characterization of systems becomes important. Reference standards are required to qualitatively and quantitatively measure the performance between difference systems. This would allow the performance degradation of the system over time to be monitored. In this report, the properties of the femtosecond inscribed structures from three different systems for making suitable OCT characterization artefacts (phantoms) are analyzed. The parameter test samples are directly inscribed inside transparent materials. The structures are characterized using an optical microscope and a swept-source OCT. The high reproducibility of the inscribed structures shows high potential for producing multi-modality OCT calibration and characterization phantoms. Such that a single artefact can be used to characterize multiple performance parameters such the resolution, linearity, distortion, and imaging depths. © 2012 SPIE.

Multi-wavelength regeneration of differentially phase-encoded signals using phase sensitive amplification

We summarize the results of our recent demonstration of the first multi-channel regenerator for phase encoded signals. By developing a novel inline phase sensitive amplification scheme simultaneous suppression of deterministic phase distortion on two independent 42.66 Gbit/s DPSK modulated signal wavelengths was achieved. © 2012 SEE.

Nyquist-WDM PDM-QPSK transmission over SMF-28 fibre using URFL amplification

Nyquist-WDM PDM-QPSK transmission over standard SMF-28 fibre with novel distributed URFL amplification is reported for the first time. Transmission over 6157 km in a recirculating loop, and 320 km in an unrepeatered link without a ROPA were demonstrated. © 2014 IEEE.

Transmission comparison of ultra-long Raman fibre laser based amplification with first and dual order Raman amplification using 10×118 Gbit/s DP-QPSK

Experimental investigations of 10×118 Gbit/s DP-QPSK WDM transmission using three types of distributed Raman amplification techniques are presented. Novel ultra-long Raman fibre laser based amplification with second order counter-propagated pumping is compared with conventional first order and dual order counter-pumped Raman amplification. We demonstrate that URFL based amplification can extend the transmission reach up to a distance of 7520 km in comparison with 5010 km and 6180 km using first order and dual order Raman amplification respectively. © 2014 IEEE.

Dual-pump Raman amplification with enhanced flatness using modulation instability

In this work, we utilize modulation instability to the broadening of the two CW-pumps of a wideband Raman amplifier. Applying nonlinear fiber process, we demonstrate a feasibility of a certain control over the broadening process, leading to clear improvements in the flatness of the amplifier gain over its operational bandwidth.

Nonlinearity management in hybrid amplification systems

A theory of nonlinearity management in transmission lines with periodic dispersion compensation and hybrid Raman-EDFA amplification is developed. Different transmission/compensating fiber pairs performances are compared and the optimal amplification scheme determined for each case.

Second order distributed Raman amplification for quasi-lossless transmission

A novel distributed Raman amplification scheme for quasi-lossless transmission is presented. The scheme is able to keep signal power variations below 3 dB in a 100 km periodic cell and 0.36 dB in 60 km.

Optimal span length in high-speed transmission systems with hybrid Raman/EDFA amplification

The existence of an optimal span length for 40 Gbit/s WDM transmission systems with hybrid Raman/EDFA amplification is demonstrated. Optimal lengths are obtained for specific amplifier configurations and different fibre arrangements based on SSMF/DCF and SLA/IDF implementation, using a simple nonlinearity management theory.

Nonlinearity management in fibre links with distributed amplification

An approach to nonlinearity management in optical transmission lines with periodic dispersion compensation and distributed Raman amplification was presented. The optimization of a three-step dispersion map with forward and backward pumped distributed amplification was examined. The optimization was performed using the analytical solution obtained under the assumption of undepleted pumps and without inclusion of double Rayleigh Scattering (DRS), and by means of a full numerical approach accounting for all important effects. It was found that both procedures led to the same final solution.

Long-haul transmission performance evaluation of ultra-long Raman fibre laser based amplification influenced by second order co-pumping

A transmission performance investigation using ultra-long Raman fibre laser based amplification with different co-pump power is presented. We attribute Q2 factor degradation to RIN of co-pump and induced fibre laser as well as increased SBS.

Parametric Identification and Diagnosis of Integrated Navigation Systems in Bench Test Process

Growth of complexity and functional importance of integrated navigation systems (INS) leads to high losses at the equipment refusals. The paper is devoted to the INS diagnosis system development, allowing identifying the cause of malfunction. The proposed solutions permit taking into account any changes in sensors dynamic and accuracy characteristics by means of the appropriate error models coefficients. Under actual conditions of INS operation, the determination of current values of the sensor models and estimation filter parameters rely on identification procedures. The results of full-scale experiments are given, which corroborate the expediency of INS error models parametric identification in bench test process.

RT-PCR for the pseudogene-free amplification of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene (gapd)

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is an enzyme which catalyses the conversion of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to 1,3 diphosphoglycerate. It is considered to be constitutively expressed in all cells, and as such the gene for GAPDH (gapd) is commonly used as a benchmark reference in expression studies. However, previous investigations have demonstrated that gapd may show altered gene expression in a number of disease states and under certain experimental conditions, suggesting that results of experiments using gapd as a control should be interpreted with caution. Furthermore, consideration must be given to the potential co-amplification of pseudogenes of gapd during RT-PCR. Here, we describe a method to avoid the amplification of contaminating pseudogenes through the design of primers that bind only to genuine gapd mRNA transcript. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Picosecond pulse amplification up to a peak power of 42 W by a quantum-dot tapered optical amplifier and a mode-locked laser emitting at 1.26 μm

We experimentally study the generation and amplification of stable picosecond-short optical pulses by a master oscillator power-amplifier configuration consisting of a monolithic quantum-dot-based gain-guided tapered laser and amplifier emitting at 1.26 μm without pulse compression, external cavity, gain-or Q-switched operation. We report a peak power of 42 W and a figure-of-merit for second-order nonlinear imaging of 38.5 W2 at a repetition rate of 16 GHz and an associated pulse width of 1.37 ps.