Recently, there is a great interest in pushing communication technologies to 100 Gb/s. However, there are still many challenges to perform high speed (> 40 Gb/s) clock and data recovery, and data time-division-multiplexing (TDM). Here, we propose and numerically analyze an asynchronous optical packet retimer using parabolic or sinusoidal phase modulation and linear dispersion. This scheme is named pulse position locking (PPL). Numerical simulation shows that this scheme can effectively resynchronize input signals with arbitrary delays to the local clock, and reduce input jitter. The scheme can also be applied to TDM 10 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s signals to over 100 Gb/s. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America

We experimentally demonstrate the use of saw-tooth optical pulses, which are shaped using a fiber Bragg grating, to achieve robust and high performance time-domain add-drop multiplexing in a scheme based on cross-phase (XPM) modulation in an optical fiber, with subsequent offset filtering. As compared to the use of more conventional pulse shapes, such as Gaussian pulses of a similar pulse width, the purpose-shaped saw-tooth pulses allow higher extinction ratios for the add and drop windows and significant improvements in the receiver sensitivity for the dropped and added channels.

We experimentally demonstrate the generation of picosecond triangular optical pulses using a superstructured fiber Bragg grating and show experimentally that use of this pulse shape can provide a three-fold improvement in conversion efficiency relative to the use of Gaussian pulses with similar pulsewidths when used in a wavelength conversion scheme based on self-phase modulation and subsequent offset filtering.

We experimentally demonstrate the use of saw-tooth optical pulses, generated using a superstructured fiber Bragg grating, to achieve high performance and efficient all-optical wavelength conversion in a scheme based on cross-phase modulation in a highly nonlinear fiber, with subsequent offset filtering. Compared to the use of more conventional waveforms, such as Gaussian pulses, the purpose-shaped saw-tooth pulses allow an improvement in the optical signal-to-noise ratio of the wavelength-converted signal of around 15 dB as well as a more than 6-dB improvement in receiver sensitivity.

Photoemission and x-ray absorption measurements have been performed on Er5Ir4Si10, a compound that exhibits an incommensurate charge-density-wave formation below 155 K. The resonant photoemission and x-ray absorption measurements performed across the Er N-54 and Er M-5 edge identify the Er 4f multiplet lines, the 4f occupancy and the character of the states close to the Fermi edge.

In the past few years, we have been witnessing an increased interest for studying materials properties under non-equilibrium conditions. Several well established spectroscopies for experiments in the energy domain have been successfully adapted to the time domain with sub-picosecond time resolution. Here we show the realization of high resolution resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) with a stable ultrashort X-ray source such as an externally seeded free electron laser (FEL). We have designed and constructed a RIXS experimental endstation that allowed us to successfully measure the d-d excitations in KCoF3 single crystals at the cobalt M-2,M-3-edge at FERMI FEL (Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy). The FEL-RIXS spectra show an excellent agreement with the ones obtained from the same samples at the MERIXS endstation of the MERLIN beamline at the Advanced Light Source storage ring (Berkeley, USA). We established experimental protocols for performing time resolved RIXS experiments at a FEL source to avoid X ray-induced sample damage, while retaining comparable acquisition time to the synchrotron based measurements. Finally, we measured and modelled the influence of the FEL mixed electromagnetic modes, also present in externally seeded FELs, and the beam transport with similar to 120 meV experimental resolution achieved in the presented RIXS setup.

We experimentally demonstrate the generation of picosecond saw-tooth optical pulses, which are shaped using a fiber Bragg grating to provide timing jitter tolerant optical time-division multiplexing data demultiplexing in a scheme based on cross-phase modulation in an optical fiber, with subsequent offset filtering. A power improvement of more than 5 dB is obtained compared to demultiplexing with more conventional shapes, such as Gaussian, with a similar pulsewidth.

We demonstrate, both experimentally and numerically, all-optical mode and wavelength conversion both within the C-band and between the C-and L-bands. This is achieved by exploiting phase-matched inter-modal four-wave-mixing processes among the spatial modes of a three-mode fiber. By increasing the number of spatial modes supported by the fiber and tailoring their dispersion profile, it is envisaged that broadband operation over widely separated wavelength bands can be achieved in a single multi-mode fiber using this method. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

The photoisomerization of the all-trans protonated Schiff base of retinal (SBR+) in solution is highly inefficient. The present theoretical and experimental investigation aims at disclosing the mechanisms of ultrafast, non-reactive relaxation of SBR+ that lead to the drastic decrease in the isomerization yield in non-polar solvents. Our pump-probe measurements demonstrate the sensitivity of the all-trans SBR+ excited-state dynamics on the electrostatic interaction with the surrounding counterions and the crucial importance of the chromophore microenvironment. Our computational study focuses for the first time on the retinal chromophore-counterion pairs that are formed in non-polar solvents. By employing TDDFT-based nonadiabatic dynamics simulations and ADC(2) reaction paths calculations we found that internal conversion from the initially excited state to an inter-molecular charge transfer state with excitation localized on the counterion, leads to dissociation of the chromophore-counterion pair and to the abortion of isomerization. Barriers to conical intersection with the inter-molecular charge transfer state were found in the range 0.42-0.67 eV at the ADC(2) level. The existence of a barrier along the non-reactive relaxation pathways explains the observation that in solution the excitation on the blue edge of the SBR+ absorption leads to decrease in the isomerization yield with respect to the excitation at the red edge.

A stable optical beat-signal with frequency GHz is produced by injection-locking two narrow-linewidth semiconductor lasers emitting at frequencies spaced by the beat-frequency to a low-jitter 10-GHz optical comb. The generated beat-signal with broadband noise suppression of dB is temporally compressed by factors of up to four in a high stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold aluminosilicate highly nonlinear fiber. The generated subpicosecond pulses have a root mean square (rms) timing jitter below 150 fs measured over 1 s.

Here we report on experiments performed by linear-dichroism angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (LD-ARPES) on septuple layers (SL) topological insulator GeBi2Te4. The linear dichroic signals, both for the valence band states and in the topologically protected surface state are interpreted as a probe of the symmetry of the states. The observation of a change in the LD-ARPES spectrum at the top of VB is attributed to the band parity inversion which is predicted by theory for all materials entering the topologically protected phase. Finally, the opening of a gap in the surface state dispersion along the non-high symmetry direction is reported. This is proposed to originated from the interaction between the surface state and the VB, leading to the formation of surface resonances. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We experimentally demonstrate a novel all-optical all-fiberized pulse retiming scheme incorporating parabolic pulses generated in a linear fashion through pulse shaping in a super-structured fiber Bragg grating. The scheme relies on chirping the signal to be retimed using cross-phase modulation with the broader parabolic clock pulses, and subsequently retiming it through linear propagation in a dispersive medium. We demonstrate the cancellation of up to 4-ps root-mean-square timing jitter for similar to 2-ps data.

A regenerative all-optical grooming switch for interconnecting 130 Gbit/s on-off keying (OOK) metro/core ring and 43 Gbit/s-OOK metro/access ring networks with switching functionality in time, space, and wavelength domains is demonstrated. Key functionalities of the switch are traffic aggregation with time-slot interchanging functionality, optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) to wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) demultiplexing, and multi-wavelength 2R regeneration. Laboratory and field demonstrations show the excellent performance of the new concept with error-free signal transmission and Q-factors above 20 dB.

We demonstrate a regenerative optical grooming switch for buffer-less interconnection of metro/access and metro/core ring networks with switching functionality in time, space and wavelength domain. Key functionalities of the router are the traffic aggregation with time-slot interchanging (TSI) functionality, the WDM-to-ODTM multiplexing and the OTDM-to-WDM demultiplexing of high-speed channel into lower bitrate tributaries as well as multi-wavelength all-optical 2R regeneration of several higher-speed signals. BER and Q-factor measurements of different switching scenarios show excellent performance with no error floor and Qfactors above 21 dB.