There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

The term photonic crystals appears because of the analogy between electron waves in crystals and the light waves in artificial periodic dielectric structures. During the recent years the investigation of one-, two-and three-dimensional periodic structures has attracted a widespread attention of the world optics community because of great potentiality of such structures in advanced applied optical fields. The interest in periodic structures has been stimulated by the fast development of semiconductor technology that now allows the fabrication of artificial structures, whose period is comparable with the wavelength of light in the visible and infrared ranges.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/6354/16969/00781867.pdf

Photonic crystals

Course Description This is an advanced course in which we explore the field of Statistical Optics. Topics covered include such subjects as the statistical properties of natural (thermal) and laser light, spatial and temporal coherence, effects of partial coherence on optical imaging instruments, effects on imaging due to randomly inhomogeneous media, and a statistical treatment of the detection of light. Development of this more comprehensive model of the behavior of light draws upon the use of tools traditionally available to the electrical engineer, such as linear system theory and the theory of stochastic processes.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/3/23094/01073023.pdf

Statistical optics

Optical Waveguide Theory

FSO is a communication system where free space acts as medium between transceivers and they should be in LOS for successful transmission of optical signal. Medium can be air, outer space, or vacuum. This system can be used for communication purpose in hours and in lesser economy. There are many advantages of FSO like high bandwidth and no spectrum license. The transmission in FSO is dependent on the medium because the presence of foreign elements like rain, fog, and haze, physical obstruction, scattering, and atmospheric turbulence are some of these factors. Different studies on weather conditions and techniques employed to mitigate their effect are discussed in this paper.

/pdf/free-space-optics-current-applications-and-future-challenges-51w4f8dleb.pdf

Free Space Optics: Current Applications and Future Challenges

Optimization of free space optics parameters: An optimum solution for bad weather conditions

Realization of free space optics with OFDM under atmospheric turbulence

Complementing wireless radio networks with free-space optics (FSO) achieves high data rates by modulating radio subcarriers over an optical carrier without expensive optical fiber cabling, enabling a pervasive platform for reaching underserved areas.In this paper, we review the main features of FSO for terrestrial and inter-satellite communications. Simulations of 1 Gbps data transmission through FSO links in both terrestrial and inter-satellite communications have been investigated to highlight potential atmospheric challenges in FSO

/pdf/the-role-and-challenges-of-free-space-optical-systems-2bi07vqjts.pdf

The Role and Challenges of Free-space Optical Systems

With rapidly growing bandwidth demands in Local Area Networks, it is imperative to support next generation speeds beyond 40Gbit/s. Various holographic optimization techniques using spatial light modulators have recently been explored for adaptive channel impulse response improvement of MMF links. Most of these experiments are algorithmic-oriented. In this paper, a set of lenses and a spatial light modulator, acting as a binary amplitude filter, played the pivotal role in generating the input modal electric field into a graded-index MMF, rather than algorithms. By using a priori theoretical information to generate the incident modal electric field at the MMF, the bandwidth was increased by up to 3.4 times.

Holographic mode-selective launch for bandwidth enhancement in multimode fiber.

To address the overwhelming bandwidth increase in premise backbones, an attractive alternative for selective mode excitation in multimode fiber (MMF) using solid-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is presented. The power coupling efficiency, differential mode delay, and bit-error rate performance of several structural designs of solid-core PCF waveguides are investigated for the selective excitation of mode LP01 in a MMF. The achieved coupling efficiency into mode LP01 is above 90% for PCF profiles with seven rings.

Angela Amphawan

Papers

Optimization of free space optics parameters: An optimum solution for bad weather conditions

Realization of free space optics with OFDM under atmospheric turbulence

The Role and Challenges of Free-space Optical Systems

Holographic mode-selective launch for bandwidth enhancement in multimode fiber.

Selective excitation of LP01 mode in multimode fiber using solid-core photonic crystal fiber