We experimentally demonstrate a Long-Wave IR FSO link with a 9.15-μm directly modulated quantum cascade laser at room temperature. Up to 8.1 Gb/s PAM8 transmission over 1.4 meter is achieved with a wideband MCT detector.

We experimentally evaluate a deep Reservoir Computing (RC)-based post-equalization for 100 Gbaud PAM6 IM/DD transmissions. It achieves similar to 1 dB higher sensitivity than DFE, and similar to 50% implementation complexity reduction compared with the conventional RC configuration.

This study explores the potential of long-wave infrared free-space optical (FSO) transmission that leverages multilevel signals to attain high spectral efficiency. The FSO transmission system consists of a directly modulated-quantum cascade laser (DM-QCL) operating at 9.15 mu m and a mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) detector. To fully understand the system, we conduct measurements on the DM-QCL chip and MCT detector and assess the overall amplitude response of the DM-QCL, MCT detector, and all electrical components. We apply various signals, including on-off keying (OOK), 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4), 6-level PAM (PAM6), and 8-level PAM (PAM8) to maximize the bit rate and spectral efficiency of the FSO transmission. Through a two-dimensional sweeping of the laser bias current and MCT detector photovoltage, we optimize the transmission performance. At the optimal operation point, the FSO system achieved impressive results which are up to 6 Gbaud OOK, 3.5 Gbaud PAM4, 3 Gbaud PAM6, and 2.7 Gbaud PAM8 signal transmissions, with a bit error rate performance below 6.25% overhead hard decision-forward error correction limit when the DM-QCL operates at 10 degrees C. We also evaluate the eye diagrams and stability of the system to showcase its remarkable transmission performance. Our findings suggest that the DM-QCL and MCT detector-based FSO transceivers offer a highly competitive solution for the next generation of optical wireless communication systems.

Free-space optics (FSO) in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) contains rich spectral resources for future ultrahigh-speed wireless communications yet is currently under-exploited. Two atmospheric transmission windows at the mid-IR, namely, the mid-wave IR (MWIR, 3-5 μm) and the long-wave IR (LWIR, 8-12 μm), show great potential in supporting free-space communications for both terrestrial and space application scenarios. Particularly, the LWIR signal with a longer wavelength has high intrinsic robustness against aerosols' scattering and turbulence-induced scintillation and beam broadening effects, which are the main concerns hindering the wide deployment of practical FSO systems. In this context, high-bandwidth semiconductor-based mid-IR FSO transceivers will be desirable to meet the requirements of low energy consumption and small footprints for large-volume development and deployment. Quantum cascade devices, including quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) and quantum cascade detectors (QCDs), appear promising candidates to fulfill this role. In this work, we report a high-speed LWIR FSO transmission demonstration with a 9.6-μm directly-modulated (DM)-QCL and a fully passive QCD without any active cooling or bias voltage. Up to 8 Gb/s, 10 Gb/s, and 11 Gb/s signal transmissions are achieved when operating the DM-QCL at 10 °C, 5 °C, and 0 °C, respectively. These results indicate a significant step towards an envisioned fully-connected mid-IR FSO solution empowered by the quantum cascade semiconductor devices. 

We experimentally test the compliance with 5G/NR 3GPP technical specifications of an analog radio-over-FSO link at 9 mu m. The ACLR and EVM transmitter requirements are fulfilled validating the suitability of LWIR FSO for 6G fronthaul.

We demonstrate a record 310/256 Gbaud OOK, 197/145 Gbaud PAM4, and 160/116 Gbaud PAM6 EML/DML-based IM/DD links without any optical amplification with performance below the 6.25% overhead HD-FEC threshold after 100-m/6-km SMF, respectively.

An optical amplification-free deep reservoir computing (RC)-assisted high-baudrate intensity modulation direct detection (IM/DD) system is experimentally demonstrated using a 100G externally modulated laser operated in C-band. We transmit 112 Gbaud 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) and 100 Gbaud 6-level PAM (PAM6) signals over a 200-m single-mode fiber (SMF) link without any optical amplification. The decision feedback equalizer (DFE), shal-low RC, and deep RC are adopted in the IM/DD system to mitigate impairment and improve transmission perfor-mance. Both PAM transmissions over a 200-m SMF with bit error rate (BER) performance below 6.25% overhead hard-decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) thresh-old are achieved. In addition, the BER of the PAM4 signal is below the KP4-FEC limit after 200-m SMF transmis-sion enabled by the RC schemes. Thanks to the use of a multiple-layer structure, the number of weights in deep RC has been reduced by approximately 50% compared with the shallow RC, whereas the performance is comparable. We believe that the optical amplification-free deep RC-assisted high-baudrate link has a promising application in intra-data center communications.

The enormous traffic growth sets a stringent requirement to upgrade short-reach optical links to 1.6 TbE capacity in an economically viable way. The power consumption and latency in these links should be as low as possible, especially for high-speed computing. This is possible to achieve using high baudrate on-off keying links thanks to a better noise tolerance and a relaxed requirement on linearity for electronics and photonics. In this regard, we demonstrate a 200 Gbaud on-off keying link without any optical amplification using an externally modulated laser with 3.3 dBm of modulated output power operating at 1541.25 nm wavelength. We achieve transmission over 200 meters of single-mode fiber with performance below 6.25% overhead hard-decision forward error correction threshold for each baudrate and all selection of modulation formats. We also show 108 Gbaud on-off keying link with superior performance without decision feedback equalizer up to 400 meters of single-mode fiber. In addition, we benchmark the short-reach optical link with 112 Gbaud four-level pulse amplitude modulation and 100 Gbaud six-level pulse amplitude modulation. For 108 Gbaud on-off keying and 112 Gbaud four-level pulse amplitude modulation, we can achieve an even lower bit error rate. 

Record 11 Gb/s LWIR FSO transmission is demonstrated with a 9.6-mu m directly-modulated QCL and a fully passive QCD without cooling, surpassing the previous bitrate record of DM-QCL-based FSO in this spectral window by 4 times.

Record 11 Gb/s LWIR FSO transmission is demonstrated with a 9.6-µm directly-modulated QCL and a fully passive QCD without cooling, surpassing the previous bitrate record of DM-QCL-based FSO in this spectral window by 4 times.