Demonstration of optically-assisted reconfigurable average of two 20-Gbaud 4-phase-encoded data channels using nonlinear wave mixing.

Networks can play a key role in high-speed and reconfigurable arithmetic computing. However, two performance bottlenecks may arise when: (i) relying solely on electronics to handle computation for multiple data channels at high data rates, and (ii) the data streams input to a processing node (PN) are transmitted as phase-encoded signals over an optical network. We experimentally demonstrate the operation of optically-assisted reconfigurable average of two 4-phase-encoded data channels at 10- and 20-Gbaud rates. Our input signals are two streams of 2-bit numbers representing a binary floating-point format, and the operation results in 7-phase-encoded output signals represented by 3-bit numbers. The average operation is achieved in three stages: (1) phase encoding and division-using an optical modulator to encode the data streams; (2) summation-using a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF); and (3) multicast-using a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide to multicast back the result into the original signal wavelengths. The experimental results validate the concept, and the measured penalties indicate that: (i) the error vector magnitudes (EVMs) of optical signals increase at each stage and reach ∼18-21% for the final multicast results, and (ii) compared to the inputs, the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) penalty of output is ∼6.7 dB for the 10-Gbaud rate and ∼6.9 dB for the 20-Gbaud rate at a bit error rate (BER) of 3.8e-3.

Dynamic Study of Intercalation/Deintercalation of Ionic Liquids in Multilayer Graphene Using an Alternating Current Raman Spectroscopy Technique.

We report Raman spectra and infrared (IR) imaging collected during the intercalation-deintercalation half cycles in a multilayer graphene (MLG) device (∼100 layers) operating at 0.2-10 Hz. The device consists of a MLG/alumina membrane/copper stack, in which the alumina membrane is filled with ionic liquid [DEME][TFSI], forming an electrochemical cell. Upon the application of a positive voltage, the TFSI- anions intercalate into the interstitial spaces in the MLG. The incident laser light is modulated using an optical chopper wheel that is synchronized with (and delayed with respect to) a 0.2-10 Hz alternating current (AC) voltage signal. Raman spectra taken just 200 ms apart show the emergence and disappearance of the intercalated G band mode at around 1610 cm-1. By integration of over hundreds of cycles, a significant Raman signal can be obtained. The intercalation/deintercalation is also monitored with thermal imaging via voltage-induced changes in the carrier density, complex dielectric function ε(ω), and thermal emissivity of the device.

Experimental demonstration of an optics-based 4-PSK half-adder using nonlinear wave mixing.

We experimentally demonstrate an optics-based half-adder of two 4-phase-shift-keying (4-PSK) data channels using nonlinear wave mixing. The optics-based half-adder has two 4-ary phase-encoded inputs (i.e., SA and SB) and two phase-encoded outputs (i.e., Sum and Carry). The input quaternary base numbers {0,1,2,3} are represented by 4-PSK signals A and B with four phase levels. Along with the original signals A and B, the phase-conjugate signal copies A* and B*and phase-doubled signal copies A2 and B2 are also generated to form two signal groups SA(A, A*, A2) and SB(B, B*, B2). All of the above signals in the same signal group are (a) prepared in the electrical domain with a frequency spacing of Δf and (b) generated optically in the same IQ modulator. When combined with a pump laser, group SA mixes with group SB in a periodically poled lithium niobate nonlinear (PPLN) device. At the output of the PPLN device, both the Sum (A2B2) and the Carry (AB + A*B*) are simultaneously generated with four phase levels and two phase levels, respectively. In our experiment, the symbol rates can be varied between 5 Gbaud and 10 Gbaud. The experimental results show that (i) the measured conversion efficiency of two 5-Gbaud outputs is approximately -24 dB for Sum and approximately -20 dB for Carry, and (ii) the measured optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) penalty of the 10-Gbaud Sum and Carry channels is <10 dB and <5 dB, compared with that of the 5-Gbaud channels at the BER of 3.8 × 10-3.

Harvesting Planck radiation for free-space optical communications in the long-wave infrared band.

We demonstrate a free-space optical communication link with an optical transmitter that harvests naturally occurring Planck radiation from a warm body and modulates the emitted intensity. The transmitter exploits an electro-thermo-optic effect in a multilayer graphene device that electrically controls the surface emissivity of the device resulting in control of the intensity of the emitted Planck radiation. We design an amplitude-modulated optical communication scheme and provide a link budget for communications data rate and range based on our experimental electro-optic characterization of the transmitter. Finally, we present an experimental demonstration achieving error-free communications at 100 bits per second over laboratory scales.

Quantum-limited discrimination of laser light and thermal light.

Understanding the fundamental sensitivity limit of an optical sensor requires a full quantum mechanical description of the sensing task. In this work, we calculate the fundamental (quantum) limit for discriminating between pure laser light and thermal noise in a photon-starved regime. The Helstrom bound for discrimination error probability for single mode measurement is computed along with error probability bounds for direct detection, coherent homodyne detection and the Kennedy receiver. A generalized Kennedy (GK) receiver is shown to closely approach the Helstrom limit. We present an experimental demonstration of this sensing task and demonstrate a 15.4 dB improvement in discrimination sensitivity over direct detection using a GK receiver and an improvement of 19.4% in error probability over coherent detection.

Quantum-secure covert communication on bosonic channels.

Computational encryption, information-theoretic secrecy and quantum cryptography offer progressively stronger security against unauthorized decoding of messages contained in communication transmissions. However, these approaches do not ensure stealth--that the mere presence of message-bearing transmissions be undetectable. We characterize the ultimate limit of how much data can be reliably and covertly communicated over the lossy thermal-noise bosonic channel (which models various practical communication channels). We show that whenever there is some channel noise that cannot in principle be controlled by an otherwise arbitrarily powerful adversary--for example, thermal noise from blackbody radiation--the number of reliably transmissible covert bits is at most proportional to the square root of the number of orthogonal modes (the time-bandwidth product) available in the transmission interval. We demonstrate this in a proof-of-principle experiment. Our result paves the way to realizing communications that are kept covert from an all-powerful quantum adversary.