Continuously Tunable Optical Buffer

连续可调光缓冲器

• 批准号: EP/J012874/1
• 负责人: Peter Horak
• 金额: $ 33.01万
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FJ012874%2F1
• 关键词: Continuously; Tunable; Optical; Buffer

Modern society is based to a large extent on the fast and reliable exchange and processing of information. This has led to an explosive growth of the internet, and every year new applications and services are added with ever increasing demands on information transfer capacity - music downloads are replacing high street CD purchases, video downloads have reached 3bn per day on YouTube alone, TV is streamed live on the internet, HD video-on-demand is just round the corner, and cloud computing may mean that data is increasingly stored and processed remotely. The vast majority of these data are transmitted in form of small data packets over a worldwide network of optical fibres. The bottleneck in the capacity is currently formed by the routers, the "distribution centres" of the internet where packets are switched between optical fibres depending on their destination. This process is done by electronics, and thus at much lower speeds than the capacity of the optical transmission fibres. Moreover, as usage nears the network capacity limits, data congestion at the routers is a serious issue which requires storage of data packets electronically until they can be re-transmitted. Finally, the conversion from optical to electronic to optical is also inefficient and thus consumes significant amounts of energy.One of the most attractive solutions to this problem is storing data in its optical form until it can be re-transmitted. Such an optical buffer should be fast, allow for arbitrary storage times, and should be broadband, that is, it should work over the whole range of optical wavelengths used for data transmission in fibres. Several optical buffers have been suggested and partially demonstrated so far, but none of them fulfils all these requirements.Here, we propose a novel type of optical buffer to meet these specifications. It is based on integrated photonics, which will ultimately allow the buffer to be scaled and mass fabricated for the market. In its simplest form, the chip contains two parallel optical waveguides whose separation can be controlled electronically. Light propagating simultaneously through the two waveguides is coupled optically through the separating air gap and the propagation velocity depends on the exact size of that gap. In other words, the speed of light and hence the time the pulse spends on the chip can be controlled by moving the waveguides. We have already shown through simulations that the delay time can be changed by a factor of three using this method. Using our optical buffer in a ring configuration can therefore create any arbitrary time delay. Moreover, the buffer is predicted to work at all wavelengths relevant for optical telecommunications. In practice, the controllable separation of the two waveguides will be achieved using the latest micro-electromechanical technology on a III-V semiconductor platform.In this project, we will first design and optimise the optical buffer by theoretical analysis and simulations. We will then fabricate the device using III-V deposition, e-beam lithography, and a combination of plasma and wet etching techniques. We will characterise and evaluate the device, and finally demonstrate the optical buffer in an optical telecommunication system.The project is a collaboration between the University of Southampton and University College London and will bring together their expertise in photonics (UoS) and III-V nanofabrication (UCL) to investigate and fabricate a device which has the potential to become an enabling technology for further acceleration of packet-switched networks and thus for future growth of the internet.

现代社会在很大程度上是建立在快速可靠的信息交换和处理的基础上的。这导致了互联网的爆炸式增长，每年都有新的应用程序和服务加入，对信息传输能力的需求也在不断增加——音乐下载正在取代高街CD购买，仅YouTube上的视频下载量就达到每天30亿次，电视在互联网上直播，高清视频点播即将到来，云计算可能意味着数据越来越多地存储和远程处理。这些数据绝大多数以小数据包的形式在全球光纤网络上传输。容量的瓶颈目前是由路由器形成的，路由器是互联网的“分发中心”，数据包根据目的地在光纤之间交换。这个过程是由电子器件完成的，因此速度比光纤传输的速度要低得多。此外，随着使用接近网络容量限制，路由器上的数据拥塞是一个严重的问题，这需要以电子方式存储数据包，直到它们可以重新传输。最后，从光学到电子再到光学的转换也是低效的，因此消耗大量的能量。这个问题最吸引人的解决方案之一是以光学形式存储数据，直到它可以被重新传输。这样的光缓冲器应该是快速的，允许任意的存储时间，并且应该是宽带的，也就是说，它应该在光纤中用于数据传输的整个光学波长范围内工作。到目前为止，已经提出并部分演示了几种光学缓冲器，但没有一种满足所有这些要求。在这里，我们提出了一种新型的光缓冲器来满足这些规格。它是基于集成光子学，这将最终允许缓冲规模和大规模制造市场。在其最简单的形式，芯片包含两个平行的光波导，其分离可以电子控制。同时通过两个波导传播的光通过分离的气隙进行光学耦合，传播速度取决于该气隙的确切大小。换句话说，光的速度以及脉冲在芯片上停留的时间可以通过移动波导来控制。我们已经通过仿真表明，使用这种方法可以将延迟时间改变三倍。因此，在环形配置中使用我们的光缓冲器可以产生任意的时间延迟。此外，预计该缓冲器可在与光通信相关的所有波长下工作。在实践中，两个波导的可控分离将在III-V半导体平台上使用最新的微机电技术实现。在这个项目中，我们将首先通过理论分析和仿真来设计和优化光缓冲器。然后，我们将使用III-V沉积，电子束光刻以及等离子体和湿蚀刻技术的组合来制造该器件。我们将对该器件进行表征和评估，最后在光通信系统中演示该光缓冲器。该项目是南安普顿大学和伦敦大学学院之间的合作，将汇集他们在光子学（UoS）和III-V纳米制造（UCL）方面的专业知识，研究和制造一种设备，该设备有可能成为进一步加速分组交换网络的使能技术，从而促进互联网的未来发展。

项目成果

Nanomechanical Optical Fiber with Embedded Electrodes Actuated by Joule Heating.

• DOI: 10.3390/ma7085591
• 发表时间: 2014-07-31
• 期刊: Materials (Basel, Switzerland)
• 作者: Lian Z;Segura M;Podoliak N;Feng X;White N;Horak P
• 通讯作者: Horak P

Fabrication and Demonstration of Nanomechanical Optical Fibres

纳米机械光纤的制造和演示

• DOI: 10.1364/fbta.2014.ff3e.2
• 发表时间: 2014
• 作者: Lian Z

Reducing bit-error rate with optical phase regeneration in multilevel modulation formats.

• DOI: 10.1364/ol.38.005357
• 发表时间: 2013-12
• 期刊: Optics letters
• 影响因子: 3.6
• 作者: G. Hesketh;P. Horák

Fabrication and Actuation of Nanomechanical Suspended-core Optical Fibers

纳米机械悬芯光纤的制造和驱动

• DOI: 10.1364/aio.2015.aith1f.2
• 发表时间: 2015
• 作者: Horak P

Nanomechanical functionality of dual-core fibres

双芯纤维的纳米机械功能

• DOI: 10.1364/ofc.2013.otu2g.2
• 发表时间: 2013
• 作者: Lian Z