Optical amplifier and record-sensitive receiver pave the way for faster space communication

Phys.org  October 30, 2024 Conventional optical amplifiers that use stimulated emission suffer from the generation of excess noise, thus limiting the performance in many applications. The phase-sensitive optical parametric amplifier can approach a noise figure of 0 dB. However, its implementation in optical communication links is cumbersome due to increased complexity. An international team of researchers (Sweden, Sri Lanka) proposed and demonstrated an implementation of a transmission system using a standalone ultralow-noise phase-sensitively preamplified receiver and a conventional single-wave optical transmitter. According to the researchers their approach was simple and could transform amplifiers to practical use, such as deep-space-to-earth communication […]

Space communication: developing a one photon-per-bit receiver using near-noiseless phase-sensitive amplification

Phys.org  September 17, 2020 Phase-sensitive optical amplifiers (PSAs) with their uniquely low noise figure of 0 dB promise to provide the best possible sensitivity for Gb/s-rate long-haul free-space links. An international team of researchers (Sweden, USA – MIT, UC San Diego, industry, Japan) demonstrate a novel approach using a PSA-based receiver in a free-space transmission experiment with an unprecedented bit-error-free, black-box sensitivity of 1 photon-per-information-bit (PPB) at an information rate of 10.5 Gb/s. The system adopts a simple modulation format (quadrature-phase-shift keying, QPSK), standard digital signal processing for signal recovery and forward-error correction and is straightforwardly scalable to higher data rates…read more. […]