Towards optimal capacity-achieving transceivers with photonic integrated circuits

Optical communication systems have many advantages over communication systems that operate in the radio-frequency range, including decreased size, weight, and power consumption and increased bandwidth. As a result, optical communication systems are emerging as the ideal choice in many resource-constrained links such as those deployed on spacecraft. This thesis presents progress on development of a programmable nanophotonic processor (PNP) for implementing a high-fidelity reconfigurable optical transceiver at the telecommunications wavelength. By encoding information in multiple spatial modes and detecting jointly over the modes using a unitary transform prior to detection, one can in principle attain Holevo-limited channel capacity in the low mean photon number regime. Since the PNP offers dynamic reprogrammability, one can also, in principle, correct for wavefront distortion in the channel. We present a setup, calibration protocols, and preliminary results towards a turbulence-resistant integrated BPSK transmitter and joint detection receiver channel that achieves superadditive channel capacity in the low mean photon number regime.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Prabhu, Mihika

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dirk R. Englund.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115725

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/115725