Temporal and spectral coding over amplified spontaneous emission for secure optical coherent communications

We demonstrate secure optical coherent communications employing low-coherence matched detection based on the randomness of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise. Two-level physical-layer optical encryption is achieved through temporal and spectral coding over a broadband ASE source. An ASE-carried signal and unmodulated carrier are polarization multiplexed, transmitted over a same single-mode fiber (SMF), and separated with the aid of polarization tracking before having matched detection at the receiving side. The impact of chromatic dispersion on the low-coherence matched detection system is analyzed and experimentally investigated. We experimentally realize optically coded 20 Gbaud QPSK and 8-PSK signals transmission over a 43 km SMF span with a maximum line rate of 60 Gbits/s.