Photonics System Group at UCSD

NEWS

- Bill Ping Piu Kuo was one of three students worldwide to be honored by the prestigious Marconi Society. He was selected a Marconi Young Scholar in part because of key work in ultra-fast signal processing based on parametric mixers.

-The group has demonstrated first wavelength-invariant channel conjugation at a record rate. The new technology was used to demonstrate transmission of 640Gbps channel over 100km of standard optical fiber, establishing a new record on dissipation and reach for high capacity links. [E. Myslivets, et. al., "Transmission of 640 Gbps RZ-OOK Channel over 100 km of SSMF by Wavelength-Transparent Conjugation," in Optical Fiber Communication Conference, OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optical Society of America, 2010), paper PDPC6.]

- DARPA RADER effort has led to the construction of the first linear parametric sampling gate. Andreas Wiberg and Evgeny Myslivets have demonstrated the ability to sample analog signals without inducing nonlinear distortions necessarily associated with nonlinear parametric mixer.

- Evgeny Myslivets has demonstrated high-precision FROG operation using all-fiber construction. The technology promises a new level of accuracy and flexibility in characterizing arbitrary waveforms with high precision.

- Slaven Moro demonstrates first CO2 spectral fingerprinting using a specialized SWIR parametric mixer. The new technology is developed in order to provide the first handheld spectral sensors that can be reconfigured to access any band of interest.

- Bill Kuo demonstrates record performance with a fast-tunable oscillator spanning 40THz. The result was achieved by a new class of dual-band parametric mixer and has allowed simultaneous access to two spectrally distant bands for the first time [Bill P.-P. Kuo and Stojan Radic, "Fast wideband source tuning by extra-cavity parametric process," Opt. Express 18, 19930-19940 (2010)]

WELCOME

The Photonics Laboratory currently supports multiple research thrusts in signal processing, sensing, and communications. The group has developed a new class of parametric devices and used them to achieve records in terabit-scale signal processing, analog-to-digital signal conversion, and coherent band mapping. The core capability of the laboratory, nanometer-scale mixer synthesis, is enabled by a unique facility developed over a half-decade period. The new technology is currently used to construct new classes of agile oscillators and sensors operating in distant spectral bands and establish new records in speed, fidelity, and dissipation.
In a second thrust, the laboratory hosts research on communication and sensing in bandwidth constrained physical channels. This technology has led to record spectral efficiencies in optical and free-space links and is currently being developed in both optical and RF domains.

OPEN POSITIONS

Graduate Research and Postdoctoral positions are currently open in broad areas of signal processing and unconventional sensing. Candidates are expected to operate in large-scale, collaborative efforts conducted in a systems laboratory. Inquiries and resumes should be sent to Dr. Nikola Alic.