Periodic Pulse Train Research Articles

Generation of trains of ultrashort microwave pulses by two coupled helical gyro-TWTs operating in regimes of amplification and nonlinear absorption

Based on a time-domain model, we demonstrate that a periodic train of powerful ultrashort microwave pulses can be generated in an electron oscillator consisting of two coupled helically corrugated gyrotron travelling wave tubes (gyro-TWTs) operating in regimes of amplification and saturable absorption, respectively. The mechanism of pulse formation in such an oscillator is based on the effect of passive mode-locking widely used in laser physics. Saturable absorption can be implemented in a gyro-TWT in the Kompfner dip regime by a proper matching of the guiding magnetic field. According to simulations with the parameters of an experimentally realized Ka-band gyro-TWT, the peak power of generated pulses with a duration of 200 ps can achieve 400 kW.

Energy-Preserving Arbitrary Repetition-Rate Control of Periodic Pulse Trains Using Temporal Talbot Effects

The temporal Talbot effect comprises a set of self-imaging phenomena in which a pulse train undergoes various coherence revivals after propagation through a dispersive medium. Besides the intrinsic physical interest of the phenomenon itself, the effect has found practical applications in various scientific areas. In optical signal processing, the temporal Talbot effect has been used to multiply the repetition-rate of periodic pulse sequences by integer factors. Because it operates coherently on the frequencies that comprise a pulse train, the temporal Talbot effect has been shown to mitigate noise such as reduction of pulse-to-pulse timing jitter and amplitude variation, as well as real-time optical averaging. Recently, there has been renewed interest in the temporal Talbot effect due to its use in arbitrary repetition rate multiplication and division, not just integer multiplication. Arbitrary repetition-rate control is based on a suitable combination of temporal phase-modulation and spectral-phase filtering using temporal Talbot conditions. By adjusting the phase-modulation profile and group-velocity dispersion, the multiplication and division factors can be tuned to be any desired values- fractional or integer. One of the main advantages of this methodology compared to traditional approaches of repetition rate control is its energy efficiency. Because temporal and spectral phase filtering are lossless processes, pulse trains using Talbot-based repetition rate control only suffer insertion loss from the system. In this article, we first present an overview of the theory behind temporal Talbot effects and then review recent work on its application for realizing arbitrary control of the repetition-rate of periodic optical pulses. This platform enables the creation of simple, versatile optical pulse sources for diverse applications where customized repetition rates are necessary.

Characterization of cochlear implant artifacts in electrically evoked auditory steady-state responses

Electrically evoked auditory steady-state responses (EASSRs) are neural potentials measured in the electroencephalogram (EEG) in response to periodic pulse trains presented, for example, through a cochlear implant (CI). EASSRs could potentially be used for objective CI fitting. However, EEG signals are contaminated with electrical CI artifacts. In this paper, we characterized the CI artifacts for monopolar mode stimulation and evaluated at which pulse rate, linear interpolation over the signal part contaminated with CI artifact is successful. CI artifacts were characterized by means of their amplitude growth functions and duration. CI artifact durations were between 0.7 and 1.7 ms, at contralateral recording electrodes. At ipsilateral recording electrodes, CI artifact durations are range from 0.7 to larger than 2 ms. At contralateral recording electrodes, the artifact was shorter than the interpulse interval across subjects for 500 pps, which was not always the case for 900 pps. CI artifact-free EASSRs are crucial for reliable CI fitting and neuroscience research. The CI artifact has been characterized and linear interpolation allows to remove it at contralateral recording electrodes for stimulation at 500 pps.

Identification and annotation of multiple periodic pulse trains using dominant frequency and graph search: Applications in atrial fibrillation rotor detection.

Biological signals, such as intracardiac electrograms during atrial fibrillation (AF), can contain multiple periodic components or peaks. We propose a method for identifying individual periodic peak trains in signals containing multiple such periodic sequences. We use dominant frequency-based periodicity detection along with a graph search algorithm to identify the most dominant periodic activation set or peaks of interest. We then remove these peaks and iterate until all periodic sequences are identified. The proposed method is tested on simulated AF intra-cardiac electrograms with periodic activation trains of three distinct frequencies corrupted by noise and complex aperiodic signal features. The method is shown to have high accuracy (up to 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity) in detecting the three individual periodic peak trains. The method has application in biomedical signal analysis, such as detecting the periodic activations of a rotor, amidst other periodic activations during AF.

Experimental study of burnout of microwave bipolar transistors under action of a series of electric pulses

Burnout of silicon transistors under the action of a periodic train of electric pulses is experimentally studied. A numerical model and a more physically demonstrative analytical model of the pulse-to-pulse heat accumulation are in qualitative and, to a certain extent, quantitative agreement with the measured results. It is demonstrated that catastrophic failure takes place at a melting point of silicon but additional heat is needed for melting of low-temperature eutectics.

Generation of “gigantic” ultra-short microwave pulses based on passive mode-locking effect in electron oscillators with saturable absorber in the feedback loop

A periodic train of powerful ultrashort microwave pulses can be generated in electron oscillators with a non-linear saturable absorber installed in the feedback loop. This method of pulse formation resembles the passive mode-locking widely used in laser physics. Nevertheless, there is a specific feature in the mechanism of pulse amplification when consecutive energy extraction from different fractions of a stationary electron beam takes place due to pulse slippage over the beam caused by the difference between the wave group velocity and the electron axial velocity. As a result, the peak power of generated “gigantic” pulses can exceed not only the level of steady-state generation but also, in the optimal case, the power of the driving electron beam.

Exciting Molecules Close to the Rotational Quantum Resonance: Anderson Wall and Rotational Bloch Oscillations.

We describe a universal behavior of linear molecules excited by a periodic train of short laser pulses under conditions close to the quantum resonance. The quantum resonance effect causes an unlimited ballistic growth of the angular momentum. We show that a disturbance of the quantum resonance, either by the centrifugal distortion of the rotating molecules or a controlled detuning of the pulse train period from the so-called rotational revival time, eventually halts the growth by causing Anderson localization beyond a critical value of the angular momentum, the Anderson wall. Below the wall, the rotational excitation oscillates with the number of pulses due to a mechanism similar to Bloch oscillations in crystalline solids. We suggest optical experiments capable of observing the rotational Anderson wall and Bloch oscillations at near-ambient conditions with the help of existing laser technology.

Combined Optical and Electrical Spectrum Shaping for High-Baud-Rate Nyquist-WDM Transceivers

We discuss the benefits and limitations of optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM) techniques based on the optical generation of a periodic train of sinc pulses for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) transmission at high baud rates. It is shown how the modulated OTDM spectrum bandwidth is related to the optical comb parameters and the pulse shaping of the modulating waveforms in the electrical domain. Such dependence may result in broadening of the modulated spectra, which can degrade the performance of Nyquist-WDM systems due to interchannel crosstalk penalties. However, it is shown and experimentally demonstrated that the same technique of optical pulse train generation can be allied with digital pulse shaping to improve the confinement of the modulated spectrum toward the Nyquist limit independently of the number of OTDM tributaries used. To investigate the benefits of the proposed approach, we demonstrate the first WDM Nyquist-OTDM signal generation based on the periodic train of sinc pulses and electrical spectrum shaping. Straight line transmission of five 112.5-Gbd Nyquist-OTDM dual-polarization quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) channels is demonstrated over a dispersion uncompensated link up to 640 km, with full-field coherent detection at the receiver. It is shown that such a design strategy effectively improves the spectral confinement of the modulated OTDM signal, providing a minimum intercarrier crosstalk penalty of 1.5 dB in baud-rate-spaced Nyquist-WDM systems.

Temporal vector cavity solitons in a net anomalous dispersion fiber laser

We report on the experimental observation of temporal vector cavity solitons in a fiber laser with a net anomalous and near-isotropic cavity. It is shown experimentally that as the pump power is increased, the elliptically polarized continuous wave (CW) emission of the fiber laser could first automatically become a periodic pulse train, and then evolve into a train of vector cavity solitons. The induced cavity solitons formed either under the coherent or incoherent cross-polarization coupling are also experimentally obtained.

Studies on the mechanism of acoustic pulse train and full transmission

Critical phenomenon in a one-dimensional periodic stratified structure with time-varying elastic modulus functions is found out for acoustic waves. By using the classical separation of variables method to solve the one-dimensional wave equation, and taking the time-varying elastic modulus functions into consideration, a critical value can be found of the varying amplitude of the time-varying elastic modulus functions. Near the critical value, due to the alternation of the characteristic exponent, the reflectivity of the one-dimensional periodic stratified structure changes in essence. Below or at the critical value, the incident wave can be converted into a periodic and millisecond pulse train, particularly when the varying amplitude is at the critical value. In addition, the layer number can be up to 16. Under these circumstances, complete pulse train of 0 or 1 is generated with respect to time; in the end, when above the critical value, the reflectivity decreases rapidly to 0 within 50 milliseconds, indicating that, at one moment, the incident wave can be totally transferred through the structure as if the stratified structure becomes transparent, which means a modulational transparency. In conclusion, by altering the varying amplitude of the time-varying elastic modulus functions, three different phenomena are generated. These excellent properties could find potential applications of one-dimensional periodic stratified structure in the acoustic transducer and the control of the acoustic wave.

Design and Performance Analysis of Non-linearity Preprocessors in an Impulsive Noise Environment

This paper discusses a practical design of nonlinearity preprocessors to be used in a receiver for mitigating performance degradation in an impulsive noise environment. A simple method is proposed for a blanker and a soft limiter to calculate a blanking and a clipping threshold, respectively. In addition, to evaluate the bit error performance of a receiver with the proposed nonlinearity preprocessors, this paper introduces an approach using a periodic pulse train function and Fourier series. When a nonlinearity preprocessor is used, since the output samples show a truncated probability density function, it is generally difficult to evaluate the bit error performance of a receiver. Analytical and simulation results show that the thresholds computed by the proposed method are near optimal in terms of efficacy function and that the error performance of the proposed nonlinearity preprocessors matches well with that of the ideal design of nonlinearity preprocessors with optimal thresholds.

Elliptic solitons in optical fiber media

We examine the evolution of a time-varying perturbation signal pumped into a mono-mode fiber in the anomalous dispersion regime. We analytically establish that the perturbation evolves into a conservative pattern of periodic pulses which structures and profiles share close similarity with the so-called soliton-crystal states recently observed in fiber media [see e.g. A. Haboucha et al., Phys. Rev. A\textbf{78}, 043806 (2008); D. Y. Tang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{101}, 153904 (2008); F. Amrani et al., Opt. Express \textbf{19}, 13134 (2011)]. We derive mathematically and generate numerically a crystal of solitons using time division multiplexing of identical pulses. We suggest that at very fast pumping rates, the pulse signals overlap and create an unstable signal that is modulated by the fiber nonlinearity to become a periodic lattice of pulse solitons which can be described by elliptic functions. We carry out a linear stability analysis of the soliton-crystal structure and establish that the correlation of centers of mass of interacting pulses broadens their internal-mode spectrum, some modes of which are mutually degenerate. While it has long been known that high-intensity periodic pulse trains in optical fibers are generated from the phenomenon of modulational instability of continuous waves, the present study provides evidence that they can also be generated via temporal multiplexing of an infinitely large number of equal-intensity single pulses to give rise to stable elliptic solitons.

Observation of Bloch Oscillations in Molecular Rotation

We report the observation of rotational Bloch oscillations in a gas of nitrogen molecules kicked by a periodic train of femtosecond laser pulses. A controllable detuning from the quantum resonance creates an effective accelerating potential in angular momentum space, inducing Bloch-like oscillations of the rotational excitation. These oscillations are measured via the temporal modulation of the refractive index of the gas. Our results introduce room-temperature laser-kicked molecules as a new laboratory for studies of localization phenomena in quantum transport.

Resonant cavity based time-domain multiplexing techniques for coherently combined fiber laser systems

This paper describes novel time-domain multiplexing techniques that use various resonant cavity configurations for increasing pulse energy extraction per each parallel amplification channel of a coherently combined array. Two different techniques are presented: a so-called N2 coherent array combining technique, applicable to a periodic pulse train, and a coherent pulse stacking amplification (CPSA) technique, applicable to a pulse burst. The first technique is a coherent combining technique, which achieves simultaneous beam combining and time-domain pulse multiplexing/down-counting using traveling-wave Fabry-Perot type resonators. The second technique is purely a time-domain pulse multiplexing technique, used with either a single amplifier or an amplifier array, which uses traveling-wave Gires-Tourmois type resonators. The importance of these techniques is that they can enable stacking of very large number of pulses, thus increasing effective amplified-pulse duration potentially by 102 to 103 times, and reducing fiber array size by the corresponding factor. This could lead to very compact coherently combined arrays even for generating very high pulse energies in the range of 1 to 100 J.

Experimental active spike responses of analog electrical neuron: beyond “integrate-and-fire” transmission

Using an analog electrical FitzHugh–Nagumo neuron including complex threshold excitation (CTE) properties, we analyze its spiking responses on pulse stimulation. The system is subjected to external pulse stimulus and can generate nonlinear integrate-and-fire and resonant responses which are typical for excitable neuronal cells. Following earlier theoretical predictions, we found that for certain parameters range, there is a possibility to trigger a spiking sequence with a finite number of spikes in response to a single short stimulus pulse. Hence, active transformation of N incoming pulses to M outgoing spikes is possible. We also show that the nonlinear electrical circuit with the CTE feature can be effectively synchronized by a periodic pulse train with 1 to M spike frequency ratio.

No-moving-part electro/fluidic transducer based on plasma discharge effect

Paper presents experimental results obtained with a model of no-moving-part transducer converting an electric input signal into an air flow diverting output effect. Demonstrated was operation at frequencies f>100Hz and also at small Reynolds numbers Re<1000. Best quality of periodic output pulse train signal is obtained in a certain limited range of air flow rates. The pulse shapes deteriorate at higher air flows because of insufficient relative strength of the generated ionic wind that causes the switching. On the other hand, an air flow rate below the lower boundary of the optimum range leads to insufficient Coanda effect attachment upon which the device depends.

Unified parameter for localization in isotope-selective rotational excitation of diatomic molecules using a train of optical pulses

We obtained a simple theoretical unified parameter for the characterization of rotational population propagation of diatomic molecules in a periodic train of terahertz optical pulses around the condition of so-called quantum resonance. The parameter comprises the peak intensity and interval between the pulses, and the level energies of the initial and final rotational states of the molecule. Using the unified parameter, we can predict the upper and lower boundaries of probability localization on the rotational level network, including the effect of centrifugal distortion. The unified parameter was tentatively derived from an analytical expression obtained by performing rotating-wave approximation and spectral decomposition of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation under an assumption of time-order invariance. The validity of the parameter was confirmed by comparison with numerical simulations for isotope-selective rotational excitation of KCl molecules.

Acoustic Aspects of Photoacoustic Signal Generation and Detection in Gases

In this paper photoacoustic signal generation and detection in gases is investigated and discussed from the standpoint of acoustics. Four topics are considered: the effect of the absorption–desorption process of modulated and pulsed light on the heat power density released in the gas; the generation of the primary sound by the released heat in an unbounded medium; the excitation of an acoustic resonator by the primary sound; and finally, the generation of the measurable PA signal by a microphone. When light is absorbed by a molecule and the excess energy is relaxed by collisions with the surrounding molecules, the average kinetic energy, thus also the temperature of an ensemble of molecules (called “particle” in acoustics) will increase. In other words heat energy is added to the energy of the particle. The rate of the energy transfer is characterized by the heat power density. A simple two-level model of absorption–desorption is applied for describing the heat power generation process for modulated and pulsed illumination. Sound generation by a laser beam in an unbounded medium is discussed by means of the Green’s function technique. It is shown that the duration of the generated sound pulse depends mostly on beam geometry. A photoacoustic signal is mostly detected in a photoacoustic cell composed of acoustic resonators, buffers, filters, etc. It is not easy to interpret the measured PA signal in such a complicated acoustic system. The acoustic response of a PA detector to different kinds of excitations (modulated cw, pulsed, periodic pulse train) is discussed. It is shown that acoustic resonators respond very differently to modulated cw excitation and to excitation by a pulse train. The microphone for detecting the PA signal is also a part of the acoustic system; its properties have to be taken into account by the design of a PA detector. The moving membrane of the microphone absorbs acoustic energy; thus, it may influence the resonance frequency and amplification of the acoustic resonator. This property may be very important for PA cells equipped with several microphones. Furthermore, microphones have a mechanical resonance, which may influence the measurement of short sound pulses. Since the PA resonator and the microphone with its connecting tube form a coupled acoustic system, this system can be optimized for sensitivity.

Attosecond timing in optical-to-electrical conversion

The most frequency-stable sources of electromagnetic radiation are produced optically, and optical frequency combs provide the means for high-fidelity frequency transfer across hundreds of terahertz and into the microwave domain. A critical step in this photonic-based synthesis of microwave signals is the optical-to-electrical conversion process. Here, we show that attosecond (as) timing stability can be preserved across the opto-electronic interface of a photodiode, despite an intrinsic temporal response that is more than six orders of magnitude slower. The excess timing noise in the photodetection of a periodic train of ultrashort optical pulses behaves as flicker noise (1/f) with amplitude of 4 as/√Hz at 1 Hz offset. The corresponding fractional frequency fluctuations are 1.4×10−17 at 1 s and 5.5×10−20 at 1000 s. These results demonstrate that direct photodetection, as part of frequency-comb-based microwave synthesis, can support the timing performance of the best optical frequency standards, and thereby opens the possibility for generating microwave signals with significantly better stability than any existing source.

Sub-harmonic periodic pulse train recovery from aperiodic optical pulse sequences through dispersion-induced temporal self-imaging.

Temporal self-imaging effects (TSIs) are observed when a periodic pulse train propagates through a first-order dispersive medium. Under specific dispersion conditions, either an exact, rate multiplied or rate divided image of the input signal is reproduced at the output. TSI possesses an interesting self-restoration capability even when acting over an aperiodic train of pulses. In this work, we investigate and demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, the capability of TSI to produce periodic sub-harmonic (rate-divided) pulse trains from aperiodic sequences. We use this inherent property of the TSI to implement a novel, simple and reconfigurable sub-harmonic optical clock recovery technique from RZ-OOK data signals. The proposed technique features a very simple realization, involving only temporal phase modulation and first-order dispersion and it allows one to set the repetition rate of the reconstructed clock signal in integer fractions (sub-harmonics) of the input bit rate. Proof-of-concept experiments are reported to validate the proposed technique and guidelines for optimization of the clock-recovery process are also outlined.