Accurate amplitude and phase measurements of ultrashort optical waveforms are essential for their use in a wide range of scientific disciplines. Here we report the first demonstration of full-field optical reconstruction of ultrashort waveforms using a time-to-space converter, followed by a spatial recording of an interferogram. The algorithm-free technique is demonstrated by measuring ultrashort pulses that are widely frequency chirped from negative to positive, as well as phase modulated pulse packets. Amplitude and phase measurements were recorded for pulses ranging from 0.5 ps to 10 ps duration, with measured dimensionless chirp parameter values from -30 to 30. The inherently single-shot nature of time-to-space conversion enables full-field measurement of complex and non-repetitive waveforms.

We introduce a next-generation long-reach access optical network (35 dB loss budget 2 dB margin) delivering up to 40G/40G per passive 1:256 optical distribution network, supportingsymmetrical1 Gb/s rates perhome user or up to 40 Gb/s for business users (e.g., enterprises, antenna sites). The proposed system is based on a novel spectrally efficient orthogonal frequency division multiplexing/ wavelength division multiplexingOFDM/WDMarchitecture symmetrically using 16-QAM OFDM polarization diversity in both the downstream and upstream in order to serve low-cost energy-efficient symmetric 1 Gb/s optical network units (ONUs), which are self-coherent, laserless, colorless, and tunable-filter-free. Each ONU comprises a standard semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), a silicon-based photonic integrated circuit (PIC), and mixed-signal electronic integrated circuits (ICs) performing the signal processing at a relatively slow rate as compared with the overall passive optical network (PON) throughput: digital to analog converters (DACs) and analog to digital converters (ADCs) at 417 MS/s for the home user ONUs.

We propose a new type of photonic analog-to-digital converter (ADC), designed for high-resolution (>7 bit) and high sampling rates (scalable to tens of GS/s). It is based on encoding the input analog voltage signal onto the phase of an optical pulse stream originating from a modelocked laser, and uses spatial oversampling as a means to improve the conversion resolution. This paper describes the concept of spatial oversampling and draws its similarities to the commonly used temporal oversampling. The design and fabrication of a LiNbO3/silica hybrid photonic integrated circuit for implementing the spatial oversampling is shown, and its abilities are demonstrated experimentally by digitizing gigahertz signals (frequencies up to 18GHz) at an undersampled rate of 2.56GS/s with a conversion resolution of up to 7.6 effective bits. Oversampling factors of 1-4 are demonstrated.

Phase modulated sub-picosecond pulses are converted by a time-to-space processor to quasi-monochromatic spatial beams that are spatially demultiplexed and coherently detected in real-time. The time-to-space processor, based on sum-frequency generation (SFG), serves as a serial-to-parallel converter, reducing the temporal bandwidth of the ultrashort pulse to match the bandwidth of optoelectronic receivers. As the SFG process is phase preserving, we demonstrate homodyne coherent detection of phase modulated temporal pulses by mixing the demultiplexed SFG beam with a narrow linewidth local oscillator (LO) resulting in single-shot phase detection of the converted pulses at a balanced detector. Positively and negatively phase-modulated signal pulses are individually detected and LO shot noise limited operation is achieved. This demonstration of real-time demultiplexing followed by single-shot full-field detection of individual pulses, highlights the potential of time-to-space conversion for ultrahigh bit rate optical communications and data processing applications.

We report a two-span, 67-km space-divisionmultiplexed (SDM) wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) system incorporating the first reconfigurable optical add–drop multiplexer (ROADM) supporting spatial superchannels and the first cladding-pumped multicore erbium-doped fiber amplifier directly spliced to multicore transmission fiber. The ROADM subsystem utilizes two conventional 1 × 20 wavelength selective switches (WSS) each configured to implement a 7 × (1 × 2) WSS. ROADM performance tests indicate that the subchannel insertion losses, attenuation accuracies, and passband widths are well matched to each other and show no significant penalty, compared to the conventional operating mode for the WSS. For 6 × 40 × 128-Gb/sSDM-WDMpolarization-multiplexed quadrature phaseshift- keyed (PM-QPSK) transmission on 50 GHz spacing, optical signal-to-noise ratio penalties are less than 1.6 dB in Add, Drop, and Express paths. In addition, we demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing joint signal processing of subchannels in this two-span, ROADM system.

We generate transform-limited WDM optical sampling pulse bursts by filtering ultrashort pulses from a mode-locked laser. A phase spatial light modulator (SLM) is used in a biased pulse shaper to circumvent the need to modulate with 2π phase wraps, which are known to limit the phase response. The arrangement compresses and retimes user-selectable bandwidths from the optical short pulse source with precise control of pulse bandwidth, pulse stream rates, and duty cycle.

Variable optical attenuation (VOA) for three-mode fiber is experimentally presented, utilizing an amplitude spatial light modulator (SLM), achieving up to -28dB uniform attenuation for all modes. Using the ability to spatially vary the attenuation distribution with the SLM, we also achieve up to 10dB differential attenuation between the fiber’s two supported mode group (LP01 and LP11). The spatially selective attenuation serves as the basis of a dynamic mode-group equalizer (DME), potentially gain-balancing mode dependent optical amplification. We extend the experimental three mode DME functionality with a performance analysis of a fiber supporting 6 spatial modes in four mode groups. The spatial modes’ distribution and overlap limit the available dynamic range and performance of the DME in the higher mode count case.