Kjeld Dalgaard

Phase regeneration of DPSK signals in a silicon waveguide with reverse-biased p-i-n junction

Phase regeneration of differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) signals is demonstrated using a silicon waveguide as nonlinear medium for the first time. A p-i-n junction across the waveguide enables decreasing the nonlinear losses introduced by free-carrier absorption (FCA), thus allowing phase-sensitive extinction ratios as high as 20 dB to be reached under continuous-wave (CW) pumping operation. Furthermore the regeneration properties are investigated under dynamic operation for a 10-Gb/s DPSK signal degraded by phase noise, showing receiver sensitivity improvements above 14 dB. Different phase noise frequencies and amplitudes are examined, resulting in an improvement of the performance of the regenerated signal in all the considered cases.

QPSK-to-2×BPSK wavelength and modulation format conversion through phase-sensitive four-wave mixing in a highly nonlinear optical fiber

A phase-sensitive four-wave mixing (FWM) scheme enabling the simultaneous conversion of the two orthogonal quadratures of an optical signal to different wavelengths is demonstrated for the first time under dynamic operation using a highly nonlinear optical fiber (HNLF) as the nonlinear medium. The scheme is first optimized with respect to the power levels and phases of the four phase-coherent pumps. The successful modulation and wavelength conversion of the two complex quadratures of a quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) signal to two binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) signals is then demonstrated experimentally with no power penalty at a bit-error-ratio (BER) of 10(-9) compared to direct interferometric demodulation of the QPSK signal.

Simultaneous QPSK-to- \(2\times \) BPSK Wavelength and Modulation Format Conversion in PPLN

Phase-sensitive cascaded second-harmonic generation and difference-frequency generation in a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide allow converting two orthogonal quadratures of an optical field to different wavelengths, thus enabling simultaneous quadrature phase-shift keying-to-2× binary phase-shift keying modulation format and wavelength conversions. Static phase-sensitive extinction ratios above 20 dB are obtained for both quadratures, resulting in error-free dynamic operation with low penalty (BER 10-9) at 10 Gbaud.

High-dimensional quantum key distribution based on multicore fiber using silicon photonic integrated circuits

Quantum key distribution provides an efficient means to exchange information in an unconditionally secure way. Historically, quantum key distribution protocols have been based on binary signal formats, such as two polarization states, and the transmitted information efficiency of the quantum key is intrinsically limited to 1 bit/photon. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, a high-dimensional quantum key distribution protocol based on space division multiplexing in multicore fiber using silicon photonic integrated lightwave circuits. We successfully realized three mutually unbiased bases in a four-dimensional Hilbert space, and achieved low and stable quantum bit error rate well below both the coherent attack and individual attack limits. Compared to previous demonstrations, the use of a multicore fiber in our protocol provides a much more efficient way to create high-dimensional quantum states, and enables breaking the information efficiency limit of traditional quantum key distribution protocols. In addition, the silicon photonic circuits used in our work integrate variable optical attenuators, highly efficient multicore fiber couplers, and Mach-Zehnder interferometers, enabling manipulating high-dimensional quantum states in a compact and stable manner. Our demonstration paves the way to utilize state-of-the-art multicore fibers for noise tolerance high-dimensional quantum key distribution, and boost silicon photonics for high information efficiency quantum communications.Silicon chip-to-chip high-dimensional quantum key distributionQuantum key distribution (QKD) enables ultimate secure communication guaranteed by quantum mechanics. Most of QKD systems are based on binary encoding utilizing bulky, discrete, and expensive devices. Consequently, a large scale deployment of this technology has not been achieved. A solution may be by photonic integration, which provides excellent performances and are particularly suitable for manipulation of quantum states. The Center for Silicon Photonics for Optical Communication (SPOC) led by Prof. Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe at the Technical University of Denmark demonstrated an integrated solution for manipulation of new high-dimensional quantum states using spatial degrees of freedom (the cores of a multicore fiber). We achieved the first silicon chip-to-chip decoy-state high-dimensional QKD, which is suitable for longer transmission distance with higher secret key rate, better resilience to noise, and higher information efficiency.

Reconfigurable SDM switching using novel silicon photonic integrated circuit

Space division multiplexing using multicore fibers is becoming a more and more promising technology. In space-division multiplexing fiber network, the reconfigurable switch is one of the most critical components in network nodes. In this paper we for the first time demonstrate reconfigurable space-division multiplexing switching using silicon photonic integrated circuit, which is fabricated on a novel silicon-on-insulator platform with buried Al mirror. The silicon photonic integrated circuit is composed of a 7 × 7 switch and low loss grating coupler array based multicore fiber couplers. Thanks to the Al mirror, grating couplers with ultra-low coupling loss with optical multicore fibers is achieved. The lowest total insertion loss of the silicon integrated circuit is as low as 4.5 dB, with low crosstalk lower than −30 dB. Excellent performances in terms of low insertion loss and low crosstalk are obtained for the whole C-band. 1 Tb/s/core transmission over a 2-km 7-core fiber and space-division multiplexing switching is demonstrated successfully. Bit error rate performance below 10−9 is obtained for all spatial channels with low power penalty. The proposed design can be easily upgraded to reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer capable of switching several multicore fibers.

640 Gbaud NRZ-OOK data signal generation and 1.19 Tbit/s PDM-NRZ-OOK field trial transmission

We demonstrate a field trial of a 640-Gbaud NRZ signal generated by RZ-to-NRZ conversion of a phase-coherent RZ-OTDM signal. This is employed in a 1.19-Tbit/s PDM-NRZ-OOK field transmission with BER<; 3.8×10-3 for all 128 tributaries.

Forward error correction supported 150 Gbit/s error-free wavelength conversion based on cross phase modulation in silicon

We build a forward error correction (FEC) module and implement it in an optical signal processing experiment. The experiment consists of two cascaded nonlinear optical signal processes, 160 Gbit/s all optical wavelength conversion based on the cross phase modulation (XPM) in a silicon nanowire and subsequent 160 Gbit/s-to-10 Gbit/s demultiplexing in a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF). The XPM based all optical wavelength conversion in silicon is achieved by off-center filtering the red shifted sideband on the CW probe. We thoroughly demonstrate and verify that the FEC code operates correctly after the optical signal processing, yielding truly error-free 150 Gbit/s (excl. overhead) optically signal processed data after the two cascaded nonlinear processes.

Quadrature decomposition by phase conjugation and projection in a polarizing beam splitter

We propose simultaneous decomposition of the two quadratures of an optical data signal to different outputs of a PBS by degenerate four-wave mixing with orthogonal pumps. The scheme is demonstrated by QPSK to 2×BPSK modulation format conversion with BER<;10-9.

Synchronization, retiming and time-division multiplexing of an asynchronous 10 Gigabit NRZ Ethernet packet to terabit Ethernet

An asynchronous 10 Gb/s Ethernet packet with maximum packet size of 1518 bytes is synchronized and retimed to a master clock with 200 kHz frequency offset using a time lens. The NRZ packet is simultaneously converted into an RZ packet, then further pulse compressed to a FWHM of 400 fs and finally time-division multiplexed with a serial 1.28 Tb/s signal including a vacant time slot, thus forming a 1.29 Tb/s time-division multiplexed serial signal. Error-free performance of synchronizing, retiming, time-division multiplexing to a Terabit data stream and finally demultiplexing back to 10 Gb/s of the Ethernet packet is achieved.

Space division multiplexing chip-to-chip quantum key distribution

Quantum cryptography is set to become a key technology for future secure communications. However, to get maximum benefit in communication networks, transmission links will need to be shared among several quantum keys for several independent users. Such links will enable switching in quantum network nodes of the quantum keys to their respective destinations. In this paper we present an experimental demonstration of a photonic integrated silicon chip quantum key distribution protocols based on space division multiplexing (SDM), through multicore fiber technology. Parallel and independent quantum keys are obtained, which are useful in crypto-systems and future quantum network.