Photonic technologies for high-capacity optical communications

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In this new millennium, people and intelligent devices are constantly interacting through untethered RF links and reconfigurable networks. These communication networks handle enormous amounts of data that must be harvested from mobile users, processed in highly interconnected data centers, and transmitted on optical fiber communication conduits already burdened with burgeoning traditional data traffic. To enable the information age, telecommunication engineers have been innovating at a rapid pace for many decades, delivering many successive generations of systems with increased data rates, capacity and connectivity. Users are usually unaware of the tremendous technological challenges that this unstoppable revolution poses to scientists designing networks around the world.****In this research program, we are investigating how to overcome current limitations of high speed communications in optical fiber networks by reinventing the optical fiber channel. Our research proposes to carry data on parallel channels, with the same wavelength, by cleverly designing fibers that multiply the number of cores in single fiber strand or allow transmission on orthogonal modes in a single core. Furthermore, we are studying microstructured fibers, with air holes, to help optimize the fiber properties and extend the current communication spectral window. In the first research axis, our focus is on fundamental fiber properties, such as scattering loss and cross-talk caused by surface roughness, that currently limit the maximum transmission distance of these innovative optical fibers. In the second axis, we examine erbium-doped optical fiber designs to make power efficient amplifiers for these communication links. Finally, in the third axis, we will research all-fiber devices to couple and filter light into the mode channels.*****This research program takes advantage of the colocation of an optical communication laboratory, with state-of-the-art test equipment, and of a fiber fabrication infrastructure that is unique in Canada. This close proximity allows easy access to optical fiber prototyping and provides a unique opportunity to make high impact research in optical fiber communication technologies. Canada has a strong photonic industry, encompassing large telecommunication equipment manufacturers as well as small high-tech businesses that must constantly innovate to maintain their leadership position. In addition to its anticipated research outputs, this research program will provide a high quality training environment for young researchers who will be well prepared to join this dynamic industrial sector.*********