This paper demonstrates simulations of the polarization gratings and switchable liquid crystal waveplates that give rise to a beam-steering method for liquid crystal lasers. This method does not involve any change in the configuration of the helical structure, nor does it result in an alteration of the laser wavelength. It also has a minimal impact on the intensity of the laser emission. Besides, the polarization state distribution of a band-edge liquid crystal laser has been investigated based on Stokes parameters measurements. The polarization profile of the liquid crystal laser serves as input for beam-steering simulation, with the result revealing consistency with the measured intensities of polarization grating diffraction spots.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) has the potential to secure indoor optical wireless links. In a typical room scenario, an indoor optical wireless link will have a transmitter on the ceiling and a receiver on a desk. Ambient light from room (typically LED) lighting on the ceiling and sunlight coming through the windows present a challenging environment for free-space QKD links to operate, and a key challenge is to mitigate the noise induced by ambient light, particularly sunlight. A combination of spectral and spatial filtering can be used to reduce the effect of ambient light, with a narrowband optical filter typically used. Moreover, the wavelength of operation is key to further reduce the impact of ambient light. Wavelengths in ‘quiet’ regions of the solar spectrum, such as the atmospheric absorption bands, are promising candidates. We are currently working on a system that operates at 1370 nm, where water and carbon dioxide absorption band in the atmosphere attenuate the solar spectrum substantially. This paper reports the design and modelling of the system, with a series of validation measurements to characterise the effect of solar radiation on a typical photon-counting detector as would be used in a QKD system. The aim of this work is to show the feasibility of the wavelength region around 1370 nm as a necessary step towards a low noise QKD receiver for indoor optical wireless links in a practical environment.
We present a miniaturised free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) system which allows key exchange between a handheld transmitter and a fixed terminal. The QKD system requires to be optically aligned emphasising the need of a beamsteering unit for later applications. To maintain within the size, weight and power restrictions, the active beamsteering hardware is exclusively located inside the receiver. Our target is consumer use so we present rigorous characterisation against a range of background light levels to show anticipated performance outside of a laboratory environment.
Experimental results show a reduction in the raw count rate commensurate with the transmission of the added components (74.5%) and a small degradation of the error rate (0.5 percentage points) due to the worse signal-to-noise ratio. These combine to a 50% reduction in estimated secret key rate of the system with the additional components for beam steering.
We compare four different sensing solutions suitable for distributed fiber optic humidity sensing in perfluorinated graded-index polymer optical fibers (PFGI-POFs). Compared to silica fibers, polymer optical fibers offer advantageous benefits including significantly higher break down strain, fracture toughness and humidity sensitivity. Various humidity-related effects in PFGI-POFs have been reported in the last years including measured attenuation and length changes as well as Brillouin frequency and Bragg wavelength shifts. The four aforementioned methods could serve as a basis for distributed and quasi-distributed humidity sensing and are described here closely with an emphasis on plausible cross effects to temperature and strain. The main focus of this paper lies on the comparison of four approaches with regard to method complexity, sensitivity to humidity, spatial resolution, real-time capability and effort to compensate for cross effects.
In this paper, we present a study aimed at characterizing the optimal fiber optic components for Brillouin sensing in multimode fibers. For this purpose the use of single-mode and multimode circulators as well as couplers typically used in the Brillouin measurement setups was investigated. On the one hand the undesired coupling losses between conventional fiber optic measurement system components and a multimode sensor fiber can be overcome by replacing the singlemode components with their own multimode equivalents. On the other hand the use of multimode fiber optic circulators and multimode couplers affects the mode distribution of laser light which can impair the measurement signal backscattered in the multimode sensor fibers. In view of an increasing interest in high strain measurements using polymer optical fibers (POFs) as Brillouin-distributed sensors the investigation on Brillouin scattering effects in multimode fibers (MMFs) was performed on a low-loss perfluorinated graded-index polymer optical fiber (PFGI-POF). The obtained results were compared with those of a standard graded-index multimode (GI-MMF) silica glass optical fiber (GOF). This study confirms the relevance of the adaptation of the measurement system components to the use of the multimode sensor fibers. In addition, due to mode coupling effects occurring in the tested POF itself, the results show differences in the yield of the components adaptation in the sensory implementation of the two kinds of the tested optical fibers.
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