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Automation of Mode Locking in a Nonlinear Polarization Rotation Fiber Laser through Output Polarization Measurements
Published on: February 28, 2016
Communication with dynamically fluctuating states of light polarization
Gregory D VanWiggeren1, Rajarshi Roy
1School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|February 28, 2002
Summary
Digital information is communicated using the polarization fluctuations of an erbium-doped fiber ring laser. This robust encoding scheme works even with standard single-mode fiber, showing promise for secure optical communication.
Area of Science:
- Optics and Photonics
- Optical Communications
- Laser Physics
Background:
- Erbium-doped fiber ring lasers exhibit complex polarization dynamics.
- These dynamics can be exploited for information transmission.
- Standard single-mode fibers are susceptible to various perturbations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate digital communication using polarization fluctuations from an erbium-doped fiber ring laser.
- To showcase a dynamical encoding and information recovery scheme.
- To assess the robustness of this scheme in a standard single-mode fiber channel.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an erbium-doped fiber ring laser as the light source.
- Implemented a dynamical encoding and information recovery technique.
- Employed a fiber-optic polarization analyzer to observe polarization dynamics.
- Measured dynamics on the Poincaré sphere at nanosecond timescales.
Main Results:
- Successfully communicated digital information via laser polarization fluctuations.
- Demonstrated the resilience of the encoding scheme against channel perturbations.
- Visualized polarization dynamics at high temporal resolution.
Conclusions:
- Polarization fluctuations in erbium-doped fiber ring lasers offer a viable method for digital communication.
- The developed encoding scheme is robust and suitable for standard fiber optic channels.
- High-speed polarization analysis is crucial for understanding and utilizing these dynamics.
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