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With the huge
growth in traffic on the Internet from simple text data to high quality
voice, images, and real-time video, it has become increasingly important
to realize a high-capacity and high-speed network to support the daily
needs of modern communications. Ultrahigh-speed optical communication
is the key technology for building such an interconnected world. This
new laboratory aims to achieve a global ultrahigh-speed optical network
in the 21 century by engaging in research on ultrashort pulse generation
and transmission. Our research areas include optical solitons, high-speed
mode-locked lasers, optical signal processing, and the development of
fibers with new functions. For soliton transmission, we have
shown that the adoption of dispersion management in an optical fiber
transmission line enables us to increase greatly the dispersion tolerance and
power margin of a soliton system by comparison with conventional systems. In
the next phase of this work, it is important to increase the bit rate of a
single channel to above 100 Gbit/s and to apply solitons to high-speed
optical signal processing. We are also actively engaged in
work on femtosecond pulse generation and its application to ultrahigh-speed
optical time division multiplexed (OTDM) transmission. We recently succeeded
in a 1.28 Tbit/s OTDM transmission over 70 km by combining a new type of 10
GHz mode-locked fiber laser and an optical soliton pulse compression
technique. In addition, we are developing a new frequency standard by
stabilizing the mode-locked laser so that it has a highly controlled
longitudinal mode separation. This technique is also applicable to the
microwave-photonics field. Another important area of our research is in the
development of photonic crystal fibers. These special fibers have many air
holes in their cross-section, and have potential applications to new optical
communication systems operating in the currently unused 500-1000 nm band. Research
topics: 1.
Ultrahigh-speed optical soliton transmission and nonlinear optics in
optical fibers 2.
Terabit/s OTDM transmission using femtosecond pulse train 4.
Photonic crystal fibers and optical fibers with new functionality |
