3D parallel pulsed chaos LiDAR system.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a parallel pulsed chaos light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system with a high peak power, parallelism, and anti-interference. The system generates chaotic microcombs based on a chip-scale Si3N4 microresonator. After passing through an acousto-optic modulator, the continuous-wave chaotic microcomb can be transformed into a pulsed chaotic microcomb, in which each comb line provides pulsed chaos. Thus, a parallel pulsed chaos signal is generated. Using the parallel pulsed chaos as the transmission signal of LiDAR, we successfully realize a 4-m three-dimensional imaging experiment using a microelectromechanical mirror for laser scanning. The experimental results indicate that the parallel pulsed chaos LiDAR can detect twice as many pixels as direct detection continuous wave parallel chaos LiDAR under a transmission power of -6 dBm, a duty cycle of 25%, and a pulse repetition frequency of 100 kHz. By further increasing the transmission power to 10 dBm, we acquire an 11 cm × 10 cm image of a target scene with a resolution of 30 × 50 pixels. Finally, the anti-jamming ability of the system is evaluated, and the results show that the system can withstand interferences of at least 15 dB.

Low-frequency regular pulse and intermittent oscillation in a mid-infrared interband cascade laser with optoelectronic feedback.

In this work, we experimentally investigate the nonlinear dynamics of a mid-infrared interband cascade laser (ICL) subject to optoelectronic feedback (OEF) through inspecting the time series and power spectrum of the laser output. The results show that, within the range of feedback strength limited by the experiment condition, the ICL sequentially presents stable state, continuously periodical oscillation (CPO), low-frequency regular pulse (LF-RP) and intermittent oscillation state with the increase of feedback strength. For the LF-RP state, the peak-to-peak value and the oscillation period increase with the increase of feedback strength. For the intermittent oscillation state, the time series is composed of the laminar region and burst region appeared alternately, and the average value and standard deviation for the duration of burst region gradually decrease with the increase of feedback strength.

Broadband dual-chirp FMCW laser source based on DSB-SC modulation and cascaded FWM.

Based on dual-sideband suppressed-carrier (DSB-SC) modulation and two-stage cascaded four-wave-mixing (FWM), a scheme of broadband dual-chirp frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) laser source is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. First, via a Mach-Zehnder modulator biased at its null point, an original DSB-SC FMCW signal with 4.0 GHz swept-frequency range and 0.2 GHz/µs sweep rate is generated. Next, the original DSB-SC FMCW signal is sent to a 1 km dispersion compensation fiber for implementing first-stage FWM, a dual-chirp FMCW signal with 12.0 GHz swept-frequency range and 0.6 GHz/µs sweep rate is acquired and used as the pump for second-stage FWM. Finally, via second-stage FWM in a 200 m highly nonlinear fiber, a dual-chirp FMCW signal with a swept-frequency range of 36.0 GHz and sweep rate of 1.8 GHz/µs is generated. Taking the FMCW signal generated at different stages as the emitted signal, we evaluate the ranging resolution through fiber-based distance measurement, and the results demonstrate that the achieved ranging resolutions are 5.31 cm, 2.04 cm, and 1.18 cm, respectively. Through equalizing the optical power of generated FMCW signal over the swept-frequency range, the ranging resolution can be further improved.

Massive and parallel 10 Tbit/s physical random bit generation with chaotic microcomb.

Ultrafast physical random bit (PRB) generators and integrated schemes have proven to be valuable in a broad range of scientific and technological applications. In this study, we experimentally demonstrated a PRB scheme with a chaotic microcomb using a chip-scale integrated resonator. A microcomb contained hundreds of chaotic channels, and each comb tooth functioned as an entropy source for the PRB. First, a 12 Gbits/s PRB signal was obtained for each tooth channel with proper post-processing and passed the NIST Special Publication 800-22 statistical tests. The chaotic microcomb covered a wavelength range from 1430 to 1675 nm with a free spectral range (FSR) of 100 GHz. Consequently, the combined random bit sequence could achieve an ultra-high rate of about 4 Tbits/s (12 Gbits/s × 294 = 3.528 Tbits/s), with 294 teeth in the experimental microcomb. Additionally, denser microcombs were experimentally realized using an integrated resonator with 33.6 GHz FSR. A total of 805 chaotic comb teeth were observed and covered the wavelength range from 1430 to 1670 nm. In each tooth channel, 12 Gbits/s random sequences was generated, which passed the NIST test. Consequently, the total rate of the PRB was approximately 10 Tbits/s (12 Gbits/s × 805 = 9.66 Tbits/s). These results could offer potential chip solutions of Pbits/s PRB with the features of low cost and a high degree of parallelism.

Dual-linear chirp microwave signal generation by using single-beam injection to a DFB semiconductor laser and optical heterodyne technique.

Based on a single-beam injection distributed feedback semiconductor laser (DFB-SL) combining with optical heterodyne, a photonic scheme for generating dual-linear chirp microwave (dual-LCM) signal with identical or complementary chirp is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. For such a scheme, a continuous-wave (CW) light with a frequency of finj is split into two parts. One part is passing through a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) driven by a modified sawtooth signal, and then its intensity varies with time as a sawtooth wave. Such a light is injected to a DFB-SL for generating a single linearly chirped microwave (single-LCM) signal. The other part of the CW light with frequency of finj is sent to a phase modulator (PM) driven by a sinusoidal signal, and one of higher-order sidebands is selected by a tunable optical filter and taken as the referenced light. Through heterodyning the referenced light with the single-LCM signal, a dual-LCM signal with identical (or complementary) chirp can be obtained. The experimental results demonstrate that, by adjusting the injection parameters and the frequency of the sinusoidal signal loaded on the PM, the central frequency of the generated dual-LCM signal can be widely tuned. For the period of the sawtooth signal at 10 µs, the bandwidth for each frequency band included in the generated dual-LCM signal is 19.36 GHz under identical chirp and 16.98 GHz under complementary chirp, respectively. Correspondingly, the time bandwidth product (TBWP) for each frequency band can reach 1.936 × 105 under identical chirp and 1.698 × 105 under complementary chirp, respectively.

Fast physical random bit generation based on a chaotic optical injection system with multi-path optical feedback.

Based on the chaotic signal provided by a simple chaotic system, a random bit sequence with a rate of 640 Gb/s is generated through adopting the circulating exclusive-or (CXOR) post-processing method. Such a simple chaotic system is built via a slave semiconductor laser subject to optical injection of a chaotic signal originated from a master semiconductor laser under multi-path optical feedback. First, through inspecting the dependences of the time-delay-signature (TDS) and bandwidth of the chaotic signal on some key operation parameters, optimized parameters are determined for generating a high-quality chaotic signal with a large bandwidth and low TDS. Second, the high-quality chaotic signal is converted to an 8-bit digital signal by sampling with a digital oscilloscope at 80 GSa/s. Next, through adopting the CXOR post-processing method, a bit sequence with a rate of 640 Gb/s is obtained. Finally, the randomness is estimated by the National Institute of Standard Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-22 statistical tests, and the results demonstrate that the obtained random bit sequence can pass all the NIST tests.

Misestimate of the performance in VCSEL-based reservoir computing systems with optical information injection by high surface reflectivity.

In reservoir computing (RC) systems based on semiconductor lasers (SLs), the information that must be processed usually enters the reservoir through optical injection. Part of the injection information directly reflected by the front facet of the SLs is inevitably hybridized into the output of the SLs and contributes to the state of virtual nodes. For an RC system based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), the proportion of the reflected information coupled to the laser output is relatively huge due to the high surface reflectivity. Thus the influence of the directly reflected information will be much more obvious. Using a Santa Fe chaotic time series prediction task and waveform recognition task, we theoretically investigate the influence of high front facet reflectivity on the evaluation of the performance of a VCSEL-based RC system with optical information injection. The simulation results demonstrate that, after taking the directly reflected information into account, a lower error rate is obtained for each benchmark task. The physical mechanism to misestimate the RC performance has been studied through memory correlation and a statistical histogram of virtual node states.

High-quality frequency-modulated continuous-wave generation based on a semiconductor laser subject to cascade-modulated optical injection.

Frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) can be acquired by using a distributed feedback semiconductor laser (DFB-SL) operating at period-one (P1) oscillation under an optical injection modulated by a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM). In this work, through introducing another MZM to establish cascade-modulated optical injection, an improved photonic scheme for generating high-quality FMCW is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The experimental results indicate that, under appropriate injection parameters, the central frequency of the generated FMCW is widely tunable, and the bandwidth is larger than that obtained under a single MZM modulation. Further introducing optical feedback for suppressing the phase noise, the frequency comb contrast of the generated FMCW can be improved obviously.

Performance optimization of a reservoir computing system based on a solitary semiconductor laser under electrical-message injection.

A simple reservoir computing (RC) system based on a solitary semiconductor laser under an electrical message injection is proposed, and the performances of the RC are numerically investigated. Considering the lack of memory capacity (MC) in such a system, some auxiliary methods are introduced to enhance the MC and optimize the performances for processing complex tasks. In the pre-existing method, the input information is the current input data combined with some past input data in a weighted sum in the input layer (named as M-input). Another auxiliary method (named as M-output) is proposed to introduce the output layer for optimizing the performances of the RC system. The simulated results demonstrate that the MC of the system can be improved after adopting the auxiliary methods, and the effectiveness under adopting the M-input integrated with the M-output (named as M-both) is the most significant. Furthermore, we analyze the system performances for processing the Santa Fe time series prediction task and the nonlinear channel equalization (NCE) task after adopting the above three auxiliary methods. Results show that the M-input is the most suitable for the prediction task while the M-both is the most appropriate for the NCE task.

Numerical simulations on narrow-linewidth photonic microwave generation based on a QD laser simultaneously subject to optical injection and optical feedback.

Based on a three-level model for quantum dot (QD) lasers, the characteristics of the photonic microwave generated by a QD laser simultaneously subject to optical injection and optical feedback are numerically investigated. First, the performance of the microwave signal generated by an optical injected QD laser operating at period one state are analyzed, and the mappings of the frequency and intensity of the generated microwave in the parameter space of the frequency detuning and injection strength are given, which are roughly similar to those reported experimentally. Next, an optical feedback loop is further introduced to the optically injected QD laser for compressing the linewidth of the microwave signal, and the results demonstrate that the linewidth of the generated microwave can be reduced by at least 1 order of magnitude under suitable feedback parameters. Finally, the effect of the linewidth enhancement factor on the generated microwave signal is analyzed.

Time-delay signature characteristics of the chaotic output from an optoelectronic oscillator by introducing an optical feedback.

In this work, via autocorrelation function (ACF) and permutation entropy (PE) methods, we numerically investigate the time-delay signature (TDS) characteristics of the chaotic signal output from an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) after introducing an extra optical feedback loop. The results demonstrate that, for such a chaotic system, both the optoelectronic feedback with a delay time of T1 and the optical feedback with a delay time of T2 contribute to the TDS of generated chaos. The TDS of the chaotic signal should be evaluated within a large time window including T1 and T2 by the strongest peak in the ACF curve of the chaotic signal, and the strongest peak may locate at near T1 or T2. Through mapping the evolution of the TDS in the parameter space of the optical feedback strength and time, certain optimized parameter regions for achieving a chaotic signal with a relatively weak TDS can be determined.

Numerical investigations on multi-channel wideband chaotic signal generation by a multi-transverse mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser subject to chaotic optical injection.

A multi-channel wideband chaotic signal generation scheme is proposed and numerically investigated based on a slave multi-transverse mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (SL) subject to chaotic optical injection from a master multi-transverse mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (ML) with optical feedback. Taking two low-order transverse modes, LP01 and LP11, as an example for numerical calculations, the simulated results show that under suitable optical feedback both the LP01 and LP11 modes (two-channel) of a ML can be driven into the chaotic states where their bandwidths are relatively narrow at a level about 8 GHz. Further injecting the two chaotic signals into a SL, for the case of the globally chaotic optical injection, the SL can output two-channel chaotic signals with wide bandwidths above 20 GHz under appropriate operation parameters. Moreover, the case of SL with mode-selective chaotic optical injection is also analyzed.

Parallel information processing by a reservoir computing system based on a VCSEL subject to double optical feedback and optical injection.

In this work, we propose a scheme of reservoir computing (RC) for processing a Santa-Fe time series prediction task and a signal classification task in parallel, and the performances of the RC have been numerically investigated. For this scheme, a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) simultaneously subject to double optical feedback and optical injection is utilized as a nonlinear node, and the parallel information processing of the RC system is implemented based on the dynamical responses of X polarization component (X-PC) and Y polarization component (Y-PC) in the VCSEL. Considering that two different feedback frames (polarization-preserved optical feedback (PP-OF) or polarization-rotated optical feedback (PR-OF)) may be adopted in two feedback loops, four feedback combination cases are numerically analyzed. The simulated results show that the parallel processing ability of the proposed RC system depends on the feedback frames adopted in two loops. After comprehensively evaluating the parallel processing performances of the two tasks under different feedback combinations, the best parallel processing performance can be achieved by adopting PP-OFs in both two feedback loops. Under some optimized operation parameters, this proposed RC system can realize the lowest prediction error of 0.0289 and the lowest signal classification error of 2.78 × 10-5.

Performance optimization research of reservoir computing system based on an optical feedback semiconductor laser under electrical information injection.

Via Santa Fe time series prediction and nonlinear channel equalization tasks, the performances of a reservoir computing (RC) system based on an optical feedback semiconductor laser (SL) under electrical information injection are numerically investigated. The simulated results show that the feedback delay time and strength seriously affect the performances of this RC system. By adopting a current-related optimized feedback delay time and strength, the RC can achieve a good performance for an SL biased within a wide region of 1.1-3.5 times its threshold. The prediction errors are smaller than 0.01 when implementing the Santa Fe tests, and the symbol error rates (SERs) are very low on the order of 10-5 for accomplishing nonlinear channel equalization tests under a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 32 dB. Moreover, under a given RC performance level, the information processing rate of the RC can be improved by increasing the SL current.

Experimental investigation on the nonlinear dynamics of two mutually coupled 1550 nm multi-transverse-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers.

We experimentally investigate the nonlinear dynamics of two mutually coupled 1550 nm multi-transverse-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The results show that, through continuously varying the coupling coefficient, the Y-polarization fundamental transverse mode and the Y-polarization first-order transverse mode in both VCSELs can be driven into period one, period doubling, multi-period, and chaos states. When the two mutually coupled VCSELs are simultaneously operating in the periodic state, localized synchronizations between the corresponding modes are observed. Moreover, mappings of dynamical states for typical transverse modes of the two mutually coupled VCSELs in the parameter space of the frequency detuning and coupling coefficient are specified.

Frequency-modulated continuous-wave generation based on an optically injected semiconductor laser with optical feedback stabilization.

Based on the period-one (P1) dynamics of an optically injected semiconductor laser (SL), a photonic scheme enabling the generation of a tunable high-quality frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) signal is investigated experimentally. Under a modulated optical injection, the laser is driven into P1 oscillation with a modulated microwave frequency. In this work, optical feedback is also introduced to further reduce the microwave phase noise. The experimental results show that the central frequency of the generated FMCW signal can be widely tuned from 11.41 to 50.05 GHz by simply adjusting injection parameters while the frequency sweep range of the FMCW signal can be controlled by varying the modulation index. Under proper operating parameters, the sweep range and rate of the FMCW signal are 18.42 GHz (13.73 GHz- 32.15 GHz) and 1.14 GHz/ns, respectively. Further, by introducing an optical feedback loop, the frequency comb contrast of the FMCW signal is drastically increased by 27.15 dB when the reciprocal of the feedback delay time matches with the modulation frequency exactly due to the locking effect of the external cavity optical modes.

Prediction performance of reservoir computing system based on a semiconductor laser subject to double optical feedback and optical injection.

A reservoir computing (RC) system based on a semiconductor laser (SL) with double optical feedback and optical injection is proposed, and the prediction performance of such a system is numerically investigated via Santa Fe Time-Series Prediction task. The simulation results indicate that the RC system can yield a good prediction performance. Through optimizing some relevant operating parameters, ultra-fast information processing rates up to Gb/s level can be realized for the prediction error is below 3%.

Chaotic optical communications over 100-km fiber transmission at 30-Gb/s bit rate.

For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we experimentally demonstrate a successful 30-Gb/s signal transmission of a duobinary message hidden in a chaotic optical carrier over 100-km fiber. Thanks to the duobinary modulation format with high spectral efficiency, the 30-Gb/s signal can be encrypted by a 10-GHz-wide chaotic carrier. A digital signal processing technique can be used to convert duobinary data into binary data on the receiver side. This proposal lowers the requirement for wideband chaos generation and synchronization in high-speed long-distance chaotic optical communications, and fiber dispersion compensation can also be simplified, which has potential to be used in high-speed long-distance secure optical communications.

Observation of additional delayed-time in chaos synchronization of uni-directionally coupled VCSELs.

We report an experimental and numerical investigation on the existence of additional delayed-time in chaos synchronization of two uni-directionally coupled vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for the first time. Under a generalized synchronization scenario, we demonstrate that there exists an additional delayed-time in addition to the time-of-flight between the two coupled VCSELs. The cross-correlation function analysis has been used as a method to determine the coupling delay and synchronization quality between two uni-directionally coupled chaotic VCSELs. We show that the injection strength significantly influences the additional delayed-time, and the injection strength analysis eventually substantiates the existence of additional delayed-time between the coupled lasers in experiments. The experimental results are in accordance with the numerical results. Additionally, we numerically study the effect of laser's internal parameter mismatches on additional delayed-time and synchronization quality between the lasers.

High-purity 60GHz band millimeter-wave generation based on optically injected semiconductor laser under subharmonic microwave modulation.

Based on an optically injected semiconductor laser (OISL) operating at period-one (P1) nonlinear dynamical state, high-purity millimeter-wave generation at 60 GHz band is experimentally demonstrated via 1/4 and 1/9 subharmonic microwave modulation (the order of subharmonic is with respect to the frequency fc of the acquired 60 GHz band millimeter-wave but not the fundamental frequency f0 of P1 oscillation). Optical injection is firstly used to drive a semiconductor laser into P1 state. For the OISL operates at P1 state with a fundamental frequency f0 = 49.43 GHz, by introducing 1/4 subharmonic modulation with a modulation frequency of fm = 15.32 GHz, a 60 GHz band millimeter-wave with central frequency fc = 61.28 GHz ( = 4fm) is experimentally generated, whose linewidth is below 1.6 kHz and SSB phase noise at offset frequency 10 kHz is about -96 dBc/Hz. For fm is varied between 13.58 GHz and 16.49 GHz, fc can be tuned from 54.32 GHz to 65.96 GHz under matched modulation power Pm. Moreover, for the OISL operates at P1 state with f0 = 45.02 GHz, a higher order subharmonic modulation (1/9) is introduced into the OISL for obtaining high-purity 60 GHz band microwave signal. With (fm, Pm) = (7.23 GHz, 13.00 dBm), a microwave signal at 65.07 GHz ( = 9fm) with a linewidth below 1.6 kHz and a SSB phase noise less than -98 dBc/Hz is experimentally generated. Also, the central frequency fc can be tuned in a certain range through adjusting fm and selecting matched Pm.