Fiber Delay Lines Research Articles

Fiber loop quantum buffer for photonic qubits

We report a fiber loop quantum buffer based on a low-loss 2 × 2 switch and a unit delay made of a fiber delay line. We characterize the device by using a two-photon polarization entangled state in which one photon of the entangled photon pair is stored and retrieved at a repetition rate up to 78 kHz. The device, which enables integer multiples of a unit delay, can store the qubit state in a unit of fiber delay line up to 5.4 km and the number of loop round-trips up to 3. Furthermore, we configure the device with other active elements to realize integer multiplier and divider of a unit delay of a qubit. The quantum state tomography is performed on the retrieved photon and its entangled photon. We obtain a state fidelity > 94 % with a maximum storage time of 52 s with an insertion loss of 5.56 dB. To further characterize the storing and retrieving processes of the device, we perform entanglement-assisted quantum process tomography on the buffered qubit state. The process fidelity of the device is > 0.98. Our result implies that the device preserves the superposition and entanglement of a qubit state from a two-photon polarization-entangled state. This is a significant step towards facilitating applications in optical asynchronous transfer mode based quantum networks.

Frequency drift characterization of a laser stabilized to an optical fiber delay line

Lasers stabilized to optical fiber delay lines have been shown to deliver a comparable short-term (<1 s) frequency noise performance to that achieved by lasers stabilized to ultra-low expansion (ULE) cavities, once the linear frequency drift has been removed. However, for continuous stable laser operations, the drift can be removed only when it can be predicted, e.g., when it is linear over very long timescales. To date, such long-term behaviour of the frequency drift in fiber delay lines has not been, to the best of our knowledge, characterised. In this work we experimentally characterise the frequency drift of a laser stabilised to a 500 m-long optical fiber delay line over the course of several days. We show that the drift still follows the temperature variations even when the spool temperature is maintained constant with fluctuations below tens of mK. Consequently, the drift is not linear over long timescales, preventing a simple feed-forward compensation. However, here we show that the drift can be reduced by exploiting the high level of correlation between laser frequency and the fiber temperature. In our demonstration, by applying a frequency correction proportional to temperature readings, a calculated frequency drift of less than 16 Hz/s over the several days of our test was obtained, corresponding to a 23-fold improvement from uncorrected values.

Broadband Beam-Scanning Phased Array Based on Microwave Photonics

A one-dimensional active broadband phased array based on microwave photonics that works in the Ku band is proposed to achieve a large instantaneous bandwidth. The phased array uses a feeding network based on microwave photonics to provide the true time delay and a wide operating bandwidth. The array is mainly composed of a broadband horn antenna, an RF transmitting/receiving module, an optical network module, and a temperature control module. The form of a horn was selected for the antenna unit, and it was fed through a waveguide to obtain a wide operating bandwidth. An optical fiber delay line that could realize the true time delay at different frequencies was adopted for the time-delay module of the optical network. To obtain a large time delay and small quantization error, a hybrid time-delay diagram utilizing electrical and optical time delays was used in the design. In addition, a temperature control module was added to the antenna system to enhance the stability of the photonic time-delay module. For verification, a prototype of the presented antenna system was designed, fabricated, and measured. The experimental results showed that the optical phased array antenna was able to scan ±20° from 12 GHz to 17 GHz, and the beam pointing did not appear to be offset over the wide operating bandwidth.

Design of optical fiber delay line with large delay range and low insertion loss

For the application of continuously adjustable optical fiber delay lines, a large delay range can increase the instrument’s measurement range. Increased insertion loss of components will reduce the signal-to-noise ratio of the collected signal, ultimately limiting the measurement accuracy of the instrument. In order to take into account both large delay range and low insertion loss in design, a spatial light transmission and fiber coupling model based on scalar diffraction theory was established and the insertion loss was equivalently calculated through the coupling efficiency of the coupling lens. Then, we analyze the impact of optical fiber delay line’s structural parameters and adjustment errors on coupling efficiency. By optimizing lens group parameters and limiting adjustment tolerances, we can reduce the insertion loss of optical fiber delay lines in a large delay range and conduct experimental verification. Considering various influencing factors, we use a lens group with a focal length of 12 mm, achieving a coupling efficiency of no less than 92.7% within the delay range of 0–1 m. This theoretical model provides a new quantitative analysis method for improving the performance of the optical fiber delay line.

Joint resource optimization and flexible QoS provision using hybrid optical core node architecture

All-optical networks (AON) provide large bandwidth, high-speed switching, and quality of service (QoS). However, the emergence of recent applications generating flexible traffic demands affects AON resource utilization and QoS management. These concerns are handled by AON using core nodes with large wavelength converters (WC) and fiber delay line (FDL) spaces, resulting in a high cost of implementation and operation. This paper proposes a hybrid core node architecture, upgrading existing nodes with limited effective modification to minimize physical topology costs. This hybrid architecture increases WC and FDL availability and reduces wavelength utilization according to traffic behavior. These new node functions are enabled using an advanced algorithm integrating a novel cost formulation merging WC and FDL with lightpath deflection (LD). This algorithm activates resource availabilities using a flexible QoS scheme considering the required and real-time traffic loss and blocking delay. The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach optimizes AON resources while guaranteeing required traffic demands compared to the existing techniques.

Palm-sized, vibration-insensitive, and vacuum-free all-fiber-photonic module for 10−14-level stabilization of CW lasers and frequency combs

Compact and robust frequency-stabilized laser sources are critical for a variety of fields that require stable frequency standards, including field spectroscopy, radio astronomy, microwave generation, and geophysical monitoring. In this work, we applied a simple and compact fiber ring-resonator configuration that can stabilize both a continuous-wave laser and a self-referenced optical frequency comb to a vibration-insensitive optical fiber delay-line. We could achieve a thermal-noise-limited frequency noise level in the 10 Hz–1 kHz offset frequency range for both the continuous-wave laser and the optical frequency comb with the minimal frequency instability of 2.7 × 10−14 at 0.03-s and 2.6 × 10−14 at 0.01-s averaging time, respectively, under non-vacuum conditions. The optical fiber spool, working as a delay reference, is designed to be insensitive to external vibrations, with a vibration sensitivity of sub-10−10 (1/g) and a volume of 32 ml. Finally, the ring-resonator setup is packaged in a palm-sized aluminum case with 171-ml volume with a vibration-insensitive spool, as well as an even smaller 97-ml-volume case with an ultracompact 9-ml miniaturized fiber spool.

Quantum key distribution in a packet-switched network

Packet switching revolutionized the Internet by allowing the efficient use of network resources for data transmission. In a previous work, we introduced packet switching in quantum networks as a path to the Quantum Internet and presented a proof-of-concept for its application to quantum key distribution (QKD). In this paper, we outline a three-step approach for key rate optimization in a packet-switched network. Our simulated results show that practical key rates may be achieved in a sixteen-user network with no optical storage capacity. Under certain network conditions, we may improve the key rate by using an ultra-low-loss fiber delay line to store packets during network delays. We also find that implementing cut-off storage times in a strategy analogous to real-time selection in free-space QKD can significantly enhance performance. Our work demonstrates that packet switching is imminently suitable as a platform for QKD, an important step towards developing large-scale and integrated quantum networks.

Comparative analysis of optical data center switches

Abstract In the recent past, there has been an explosive growth in data traffic within data center systems. This rapid increase in data volume has put significant constraints on the speed of current data communication networks, which are predominantly based on electronic controllers and memory. The speed limitations of electronic devices hinder their ability to process data at higher rates efficiently. To address this issue and enable faster data processing, the use of optical communication emerges as the most promising solution. Optical communication leverages the capabilities of light signals and optical components, which can handle data at much higher rates compared to their electronic counterparts. One key element in optical communication systems is the utilization of fiber delay lines (FDLs) as optical storage for packets. FDLs offer the ability to temporarily store and delay optical signals, providing buffering capabilities within optical networks. These FDLs can be configured in various setups, including feed forward, feed backward, and recirculating configurations, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. In this context, this article explores several state-of-the-art arrayed waveguide grating (AWG)-based optical packet switch (OPSW) architectures. These switches are designed to efficiently route and manage optical packets within data center networks. Each architecture is summarized, highlighting its unique features and capabilities. To compare the different AWG-based OPSW architectures, various key parameters are considered, such as the cost, physical losses, bit error rate (BER), and the number of tunable components required. These parameters are critical in determining the performance, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the switches.

High-resolution measurement of laser frequency drift using stable delayed self-heterodyne interferometry.

We demonstrate a laser frequency drift measurement system based on the delayed self-heterodyne technique. To ensure long-term measurement validity, an ultra-stable optical fiber delay line is realized by monitoring and locking the transmission delay of a probe signal with a well-designed phase-locked loop. The frequency stability indicated by overlapping Allan deviation is 6.39 × 10-18 at 1000-s averaging time, ensuring a real-time measurement resolution of 18.6 kHz. After carefully determining the optimal fiber length, a 5-kHz periodic frequency change with a period of merely 0.5 s is easily detected, proving its high frequency resolution and fast response. At last, the frequency drift characteristics of three different lasers after being powered on are investigated. Thanks to its high precision and long-term stability, the proposed method is ideal for monitoring long-term laser frequency evolution with high precision.

Laser Frequency Chirping With Silicon Photonic Circuit Comprising an IQ Modulator and a III-V/Si SOA

We report on the performance of a silicon photonic integrated circuit for laser frequency chirping, developed for FMCW LIDAR applications. An external laser source is fiber coupled to the photonic circuit and frequency chirping is achieved with a silicon IQ modulator and a monolithically integrated III-V/Si semiconductor optical amplifier to compensate for IQ modulator losses. A chirp distortion of 1.8% over 5% to 95% of the chirp ramp period was measured with a delayed self-heterodyne interferometric method. The high chirp linearity of our circuit is confirmed by FMCW ranging measurements using 2-18 m long fiber delay lines. The resulting beat frequency follows a linear dependency with the fiber delay line length (R²=0.999).

Modular architectures to deterministically generate graph states

Graph states are a family of stabilizer states which can be tailored towards various applications in photonic quantum computing and quantum communication. In this paper, we present a modular design based on quantum dot emitters coupled to a waveguide and optical fiber delay lines to deterministically generate N-dimensional cluster states and other useful graph states such as tree states and repeater states. Unlike previous proposals, our design requires no two-qubit gates on quantum dots and at most one optical switch, thereby, minimizing challenges usually posed by these requirements. Furthermore, we discuss the error model for our design and demonstrate a fault-tolerant quantum memory with an error threshold of 0.53% in the case of a 3d graph state on a Raussendorf-Harrington-Goyal (RHG) lattice. We also provide a fundamental upper bound on the correctable loss in the fault-tolerant RHG state based on the percolation theory, which is 1.24 dB or 0.24 dB depending on whether the state is directly generated or obtained from a simple cubic cluster state, respectively.

Fabrication Method for the High-Accuracy Optical Fiber Delay Line with Specified Length

We propose a novel scheme for fabricating high-accuracy optical fiber delay lines (OFDLs). The fabrication system integrates a self-designed optical fiber cutting device and a high-accuracy fiber length measurement module based on optical frequency domain reflectometry. The optical fiber cutting device can cleave optical fibers to a specific length with the help of the motorized stage. The accuracy of fiber-cutting was determined by the positional accuracy of the motorized stage, which can reach several microns or even lower. This integrated design significantly reduces the errors and uncertainties introduced by fiber-cutting. To test, a set of OFDLs of a certain length was fabricated by this system. The deviation from the desired fiber length was kept below 50 μm, thus proving high fabrication accuracy and repeatability.

All-fiber-based ultrastable laser with long-term frequency stability of 1.1 × 10-14

We demonstrate an ultrastable miniaturized transportable laser system at 1550 nm by locking it to an optical fiber delay line (FDL). To achieve optimized long-term frequency stability, the FDL was placed into a vacuum chamber with a five-layer thermal shield, and a delicate two-stage active temperature stabilization, an optical power stabilization, and an RF power stabilization were applied in the system. A fractional frequency stability of better than 3.2×10-15 at 1 s averaging time and 1.1×10-14 at 1000 s averaging time was achieved, which is the best long-term frequency stability of an all-fiber-based ultrastable laser observed to date.

Tunable compact asynchronous optical sampling system using Er-doped fiber laser

Abstract We report a compact, tunable, self-starting, all-fiber laser-based asynchronous optical sampling (ASOPS) system. Two Er-doped fiber oscillators were used as the pulsed-laser source, whose repetition rate could be set at 100 MHz with a tuning range of 1.25 MHz through a fiber delay line. By employing phase-locked and temperature control loops, the repetition rate offset of the two lasers was stabilized with 7.13 × 10−11 fractional instability at an average time of 1 s. Its capabilities in the terahertz regime were demonstrated by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, achieving a spectral bandwidth of 3 THz with a dynamic range of 30 dB. The large range of repetition rate adjustment in our ASOPS system has the potential to be a powerful tool in the terahertz regime.

All-Optical Format Conversion of 2-Dimensional MQAM to MPSK Based on Nonlinear Mach-Zehnder Interferometer With Wavelength Preservation

An all-optical format conversion scheme of 2-dimensional multiple-quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) to multiple-phase shift keying (MPSK) signals is proposed and numerically simulated by using the nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) configuration with wavelength preservation. The input octal-quadrature amplitude modulation (8QAM) signal is generated through the phase modulator (PM) and amplitude modulator (AM) and injected into the nonlinear MZI configuration. The designed nonlinear MZI configuration includes two 3 dB optical couplers (OCs), a piece of high nonlinear fiber (HNLF) and a variable optical attenuator (VOA) in the upper interfering arm and a piece of standard single mode fiber (SSMF) or tunable optical delay line (TODL) and a variable phase shifter (VPS) in the lower interfering arm. The converted octal-phase shift keying (8PSK) signal can be obtained from the nonlinear MZI configuration through vector superposition between the input optical signal and itself with some nonlinear phase shift. The needed asymmetric nonlinear phase shift is mainly induced by the big nonlinear index difference between HNLF and SSMF. The error vector magnitude (EVM) and bit error rate (BER) performance of the scheme are calculated before and after format conversion with the different input and receiver optical-signal-noise-ratios (OSNRs). The scheme can be used in the intermediate node to connect the different networks which adopt 8QAM and 8PSK signals, respectively.

Passive quadrature demodulation of multiplexed interferometric sensors using a CW correlation reflectometer with a single DFB diode laser.

In this Letter, we report a novel, to the best of our knowledge, and simple approach for passive quadrature-phase demodulation of relatively long multiplexed interferometers based on two-channel coherence correlation reflectometry. Two-wavelength channels are generated using a single unmodulated CW-DFB diode laser and an acousto-optic frequency shifter. The introduced frequency shift determines the optical lengths of the interferometers. In our experiments, all interferometers have the same optical length of 32 cm corresponding to the π/2 phase difference between channel signals. An additional fiber delay line was introduced between channels to destroy coherence between initial and frequency-shifted channels. Demultiplexing of channels and sensors was performed using correlation-based signal processing. Amplitudes of cross correlation peaks obtained for both channels were used to extract the interferometric phase for each interferometer. Phase demodulation of relatively long multiplexed interferometers is experimentally demonstrated. Experimental results prove that the proposed technique is suitable for interrogating a serial array of relatively long interferometers dynamically modulated with phase excursions exceeding 2π. Simultaneous interrogation and phase demodulation were experimentally demonstrated using an in-line array of low-finesse Fabry-Perot interferometric sensors.

Fast linear optical sampling with high repetition-frequency using fiber delay lines.

Linear optical sampling (LOS) is one of the most promising techniques for optical modulation analyzers. The LOS system generally adopts a mode-locked fiber laser (MFL) to generate an ultra-stable optical pulse to realize under-sampling for signal under test (SUT). However, it is challenging for MFL to produce a high-repetition-frequency pulse, making more measurement errors of conventional LOS technology, especially for high-speed signals. This paper proposes a dual-pulse mixing (DPM) based LOS system to increase the repetition frequency using fiber delay lines with the multiplied optical pulse. We propose the pulse location and peak extraction algorithms to compensate the time bias and amplitude bias in the DPM-based LOS system, which significantly improves the measurement speed and range. The experiment results show that the DPM-based LOS system can increase the number of sampling points twice compared with the conventional LOS within the same sampling time window. Furthermore, the proposed DPM-based LOS system can achieve less error vector magnitude with a reduction of 9.1% compared with the conventional LOS. Hence, the proposed DPM-based LOS system has great potential for high-speed signal processing.

Calibration of an RF/Microwave Phase Noise Meter with a Photonic Delay Line

The main advantage of phase noise meters with photonic (fiber) delay lines is that they do not require high-performance, low-noise reference oscillators. On the other hand, some additional calibrations are required, which are the subject of this paper. First, the quadrature must be maintained on the mixer by precise adjustment of the phase and/or delay. Next, since the response of the mixer is proportional to the square of the input test signal, a precise amplitude calibration is required. Finally, the frequency response of the FFT spectrum analyzer and its corresponding anti-aliasing low-pass filter needs to be known precisely. In this paper, to the best of our knowledge, we present innovative solutions for all three calibrations. All three calibrations were built in and tested in our phase noise meter. The result is a simple and robust phase noise meter suitable for non-laboratory environments.

Erbium-doped fiber laser with switchable wavelength generation based on tunable filter and dual-pass mach-zehnder filter incorporated with fiber delay line

A wavelength switchable erbium-doped fiber laser incorporated with a tunable filter and dual-pass Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) was designed and experimentally demonstrated. The erbium-doped fiber was used as the gain medium for the fiber laser and the laser working threshold was 92 mW. The dual-pass MZI was fabricated using three optical couplers (OCs) and the variable fiber delay line. A tunable filter was used for laser tuning and it was combined with two OCs to construct a subsidiary cavity. A tunable and stable single- and dual-wavelength laser output was obtained in the experiment. In the case of single-wavelength laser output, the tuning span was in the range of 1527.6–1562.4 nm with an interval of 1.2 nm. Additionally, the side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) was greater than 37.45 dB. In the case of dual-wavelength laser emission, the lasers were tuned from 1540.7 and 1541.6 nm to 1560.8 and 1561.2 nm, respectively. The stability of the single-, dual-and triple-wavelength laser output was evaluated and the power fluctuation was less than 1.36, 1.34, and 1.37 dB, respectively. Finally, quadruple- and quintuple-wavelength laser outputs were achieved by adjusting the loss of the intra-cavity.

Injection Locking of Optoelectronic Oscillators With Large Delay

The optoelectronic oscillator is a delay line oscillator that leverages optical fibre technology to realize the large delay required for low phase noise systems. Spurious sidemodes are an artefact of the delay line oscillator, yet treatments of injection locking of optoelectronic oscillators have relied on the application of classical injection locking theory valid only for single mode oscillators. The large delay contributed by the optical fibre delay line is accounted for by the classical theory only in part through the quality factor Q that captures the round-trip group delay in a neighborhood of the oscillation frequency. This paper presents a new formulation of time delay oscillators subject to injection that describes all the essential features of their dynamics and phase noise. The common assumptions of a single mode oscillator and weak injection are removed. This is important to correctly predict the lock-in range, the suppression of sidemodes and the phase noise spectrum. The findings of the analysis are validated by experimental measurements provided by an optoelectronic oscillator under injection by an external source.