Photodetector optic power optimization to increase the gain on sub-octave microwave photonic link / Optimização da potência óptica do fotodetector para aumentar o ganho na ligação fotónica de microondas sub-octave

An investigation of the optic spectral components beating at the photodetector to recover the RF signal at the output of a sub-octave microwave photonic link is presented, by a theoretical and experimental approach. It is demonstrated the best efficiency is achieved when the carrier to sideband ratio (CSR) is 0 dB at a low bias voltage condition on Mach-Zehnder (MZM) intensity modulator. A RF power link gain improvement of 9.7 dB is demonstrated for a same photodetector incident optic power, compared with a link operating at quadrature bias voltage condition on the MZM.

Intensity modulator for secure, stable, and high-performance decoy-state quantum key distribution

The decoy-state method substantially improves the performance of quantum key distribution (QKD) and perfectly solves crucial issues caused by multiphoton pulses. In recent years, the decoy-state method has occupied a key position in practicality, and almost all the QKD systems have employed the decoy-state method. However, the imperfections of traditional intensity modulators limit the performance of the decoy-state method and bring side channels. In this work, a special intensity modulator and its accompanying modulation method are designed and experimentally verified for the secure, stable, and high-performance decoy-state QKDs. The experimental result indicates that its stable and adjustable intensities, convenient two-level modulation, inherently high speed, and compact structure is extremely fit for future trends and will help the decoy-state method to be perfectly applied to QKD systems.

Investigation of optical short pulse generation using intensity modulation for LiDAR and free-space communications

A simple optical pulse generation scheme for pulsed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and free-space communications is proposed and experimentally and numerically demonstrated, in which continuous-wave light emitted by a distributed feedback-laser diode (DFB-LD) is modulated by a lithium-niobate Mach–Zehnder intensity modulator to generate optical short pulses, and an Er-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is used to boost transmitting light power. Possibilities of intensity modulators for high speed communications being used to generate optical short pulses for low speed pulsed LiDAR are investigated. The influences of bias voltage of intensity modulator and bit rate of modulation signal on the generated optical pulses are discussed. The pulse width obtained by using the return to zero signal with 33% duty cycle on bit rate of 2.5 and 5 Gbit/s is respectively 128.0 and 63.2 ps, and the corresponding nominal accuracy of pulsed LiDAR is respectively 19.2 and 9.5 mm, and low repetition frequency required by pulsed LiDAR is achieved by coding to high-speed modulation signal. The system performance for free-space communications and pulsed LiDAR is evaluated, respectively. We believe that the proposed scheme is suitable for the integrated system of pulsed LiDAR and free-space communications.