Events Calendar

CILQ Internal Seminar

Speaker: Alan Willner, Professor, USC

Talk Title: Optical Communications: Innovations and Applications Abound

Abstract: Optical communications has enjoyed tremendous impact over the past 50 years. Relatively soon after the concrete proposal of optical fiber communications was reported and the low-loss fiber was demonstrated, fiber-based communications dramatically impacted the way society transfers information. However, there are other key areas beyond fiber-based communications that were also envisioned ~50 years ago but are only recently emerging. Such emergence is due to enhanced capacity needs and critical innovations, including advances in photonic integrated circuits (PICs). This talk will highlight various examples of the innovations and emerging applications of optical communications, including:
1. Free-space optical communications: As opposed to RF, optical links have high directionality and large bandwidth. There is great excitement in the recent emergence of deployed free-space optical links, be they through air or outer-space. Moreover, due to the extremely high losses of RF, even underwater links in the blue-green are gaining significant interest. Also to be discussed is capacity enhancement using multiplexing of multiple orbital-angular-momentum beams.
2. Non-conventional wavelengths: Fiber systems are overwhelmingly in the near-IR, whereas free-space links can take advantage of a much wider frequency range, from THz to visible. Such systems may utilize: (a) native high-speed components, and/or (b) wavelength-band conversion of near-IR channels to other frequencies.
3. Optical signal processing (OSP): OSP has long held the promise of high-speed operation and the avoidance of inefficient optical-electrical-optical conversion. Although OSP deployment has been limited, advances in PICs, power efficiency and multi-wavelength operation may soon enable the emergence of OSP for high-performance functions.


Host: CILQ

Webcast: https://usc.zoom.us/j/92417517950?pwd=WUkycy90cndVQko5R3RhQ1U3STBDdz09

Location: via zoom

WebCast Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/92417517950?pwd=WUkycy90cndVQko5R3RhQ1U3STBDdz09

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Corine Wong