A visible light communication (VLC) system using an organic bulk heterojunction photodetector (OPD) is presented. The system has been successfully proven indoors with an audio signal. The emitter consists of three commercial high-power white LEDs connected in parallel. The receiver is based on an organic photodetector having as active layer a blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). The OPD is opto-electrically characterized, showing a responsivity of 0.18 A/W and a modulation response of 790 kHz at −6 V.
In this paper, a new approach to dual comb generation based on well-known optical techniques (Gain-Switching and Optical Injection Locking) is presented. The architecture can be implemented using virtually every kind of continuous-wave semiconductor laser source (DFB, VCSEL, QCL) and without the necessity of electro-optic modulators. This way, a frequency-agile and adaptive dual-comb architecture is provided with potential implementation capabilities from mid-infrared to near ultraviolet. With a RF comb comprising around 70 teeth, the system is validated in the 1.5 μm region measuring the absorption feature of H13CN at 1538.523 nm with a minimum integration time of 10 μs.
20 May 2013 in IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology
We report on a photonic system for generation of high quality continuous-wave (CW) sub-THz signals. The system consists on a gain-switching-based optical frequency comb generator (GS-OFCG), a two-optical-modes selection mechanism and a n-i-pn-i-p superlattice photomixer. As mode selection mechanism, both selective tunable optical filtering using Fabry-Pérot tunable filters (FPTFs) and Optical Injection Locking (OIL) are evaluated. The performance of the reported system surpasses in orders of magnitude the performance of any commercially available optical mm-wave and sub-THz generation system in a great number of parameters. It matches and even overcomes those of the best commercially available electronic THz generation systems. The performance parameters featured by our system are: linewidth <;10 Hz at 120 GHz, complete frequency range coverage (60-140 GHz) with a resolution in the order of 0.1 Hz at 120 GHz (10-12 of generated frequency), high long term frequency stability (5 Hz deviation over one hour). Most of these values are limited by the measurement instrumentation accuracy and resolution, thus the actual values of the system could be better than the reported ones. The frequency can be extended straightforwardly up to 1 THz extending the OFCG frequency span. This system is compact, robust, reliable, offers a very high performance, especially suited for sub-THz photonic local oscillators and high resolution spectroscopy.
25 February 2013 in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
We introduce a novel scheme for the simultaneous reduction of time-bandwidth product (TBP) and RF linewidth of quantum-dash two-section mode-locked lasers using optical injection-locking and filtered optical feedback. The optical injection-locked laser, double-locked with optical feedback showed 2× TBP reduction and RF linewidth reduction by two orders of magnitude. This stabilization technique is implemented in an all-optical arrangement without optical/electrical conversion which is ideal for high-repetition-rate devices and photonic integration.
Visible light communication systems can be used in a wide variety of applications, from driving to home automation. The use of wearables can increase the potential applications in indoor systems to send and receive specific and customized information. We have designed and developed a fully organic and flexible Visible Light Communication system using a flexible OLED, a flexible P3HT:PCBM-based organic photodiode (OPD) and flexible PCBs for the emitter and receiver conditioning circuits. We have fabricated and characterized the I-V curve, modulation response and impedance of the flexible OPD. As emitter we have used a commercial flexible organic luminaire with dimensions 99 × 99 × 0.88 mm, and we have characterized its modulation response. All the devices show frequency responses that allow operation over 40 kHz, thus enabling the transmission of high quality audio. Finally, we integrated the emitter and receiver components and its electronic drivers, to build an all-organic flexible VLC system capable of transmitting an audio file in real-time, as a proof of concept of the indoor capabilities of such a system.