Home > Press > Intelligent optical chip to improve telecommunications: An INRS team uses autonomous learning approaches for optical waveform generators to boost optical signal processing functionalities for current and future telecom applications
![]() |
The smart pulse-shaper can autonomously adjust the output to a user-defined target waveform. |
Abstract:
From the internet, to fibre or satellite communications and medical diagnostics, our everyday life relies on optical technologies. These technologies use optical pulsed sources to transfer, retrieve or compute information. Gaining control over optical pulse shapes thus paves the way for further advances.
PhD student Bennet Fischer and postdoctoral researcher Mario Chemnitz, in the team of Professor Roberto Morandotti of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), developed a smart pulse-shaper integrated on a chip. The device output can autonomously adjust to a user-defined target waveform with strikingly low technical and computational requirements.
An Innovative Design
Ideally, an optical waveform generator should autonomously output a target waveform for user-friendliness, minimize the experimental requirements for driving the system and reading out the waveform, to ease online monitoring. It should also feature a long-term reliability, low losses, fibre connectivity, and maximal functionality.
“Previously demonstrated integrated optical waveform generators only featured one or two of these key features at a time. Our methods address all the demands in one scalable, potentially fully chip integrable approach.”
- Mario Chemnitz.
Among other things, practical imperfections, such as individual device fidelities, deteriorate the performances accessible from those initially designed or simulated for. “We find that evolutionary optimization can help in overcoming the inherent design limitations of on-chip systems and hence elevate their performance and reconfigurability to a new level,” says the postdoctoral researcher.
Machine Learning for Smart Photonics
The team was able to achieve this device alongside with the recent emergence of machine learning concepts into photonics, which promises unprecedented capabilities and system performance. “The optics community is eager to learn about new methods and smart device implementations. In our work, we present an interlinked bundle of machine-learning enabling methods of high relevance, for both the technical and academic optical communities.”
The researchers used evolutionary optimization algorithms as a key tool for repurposing a programmable photonic chip beyond its original use. Evolutionary algorithms are nature-inspired computer programs, which allows to efficiently optimize many-parameter systems at significantly reduced computational resources.
This innovative research was published in the prestigious journal Optica. “For us young researchers, PhDs and postdocs, it is of paramount importance for our careers that our research is visible and shared. Thus, we are truly grateful and overwhelmed with the news that our work is published in such an outstanding and interdisciplinary journal. It heats up our ambitions to continue our work and search for even better implementations and breakthrough applications. It endorses our efforts and it is simply a great honour,” says Mario Chemnitz.
The team’s next steps include the investigation of more complex chip designs. The target is to improve the device performance, as well as the on-chip integration of the optical sampling (detection scheme). At terms, they could provide a single compact device ready-to-use.
About the study
The article “Autonomous on-chip interferometry for reconfigurable optical waveform generation”, by Bennet Fischer, Mario Chemnitz, Benjamin Maclellan, Piotr Roztocki, Robin Helsten, Benjamin Wetzel, Brent E. Little, Sai T. Chu, David J. Moss, José Azaña and Roberto Morandotti, was published in the journal Optica. The study received financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT), the European Research Council (ERC) and the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR).
####
About INRS - Institut national de la recherche scientifique
INRS is a university dedicated exclusively to graduate level research and training. Since its creation in 1969, INRS has played an active role in Québec’s economic, social, and cultural development and is ranked first for research intensity in Québec and in Canada. INRS is made up of four interdisciplinary research and training centres in Québec City, Montréal, Laval, and Varennes, with expertise in strategic sectors: Eau Terre Environnement, Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications, Urbanisation Culture Société, and Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie. The INRS community includes more than 1,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members, and staff.
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Audrey-Maude Vezina
Institut national de la recherche scientifique - INRS
Cell: 418-254-2156
Copyright © INRS - Institut national de la recherche scientifique
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Related Links |
Related News Press |
News and information
Engineering piezoelectricity and strain sensitivity in CdS to promote piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution May 13th, 2022
New nanomechanical oscillators with record-low loss May 13th, 2022
Small microring array enables large complex-valued matrix multiplication May 13th, 2022
Wireless/telecommunications/RF/Antennas/Microwaves
Dynamic metasurfaces and metadevices empowered by graphene May 6th, 2022
First integrated laser on lithium niobate chip: Research paves the way for high-powered telecommunication systems April 8th, 2022
Ultra-compact integrated photonic device could lead to new optical technologies March 18th, 2022
Researchers develop the world's first power-free frequency tuner using nanomaterials March 18th, 2022
Possible Futures
Engineering piezoelectricity and strain sensitivity in CdS to promote piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution May 13th, 2022
New nanomechanical oscillators with record-low loss May 13th, 2022
Small microring array enables large complex-valued matrix multiplication May 13th, 2022
Chip Technology
On-Chip Photodetection: Two-dimensional material heterojunctions hetero-integration May 13th, 2022
Small microring array enables large complex-valued matrix multiplication May 13th, 2022
Discoveries
New nanomechanical oscillators with record-low loss May 13th, 2022
Small microring array enables large complex-valued matrix multiplication May 13th, 2022
Announcements
Engineering piezoelectricity and strain sensitivity in CdS to promote piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution May 13th, 2022
New nanomechanical oscillators with record-low loss May 13th, 2022
Small microring array enables large complex-valued matrix multiplication May 13th, 2022
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Lightening up the nanoscale long-wavelength optoelectronics May 13th, 2022
On-Chip Photodetection: Two-dimensional material heterojunctions hetero-integration May 13th, 2022
Engineering piezoelectricity and strain sensitivity in CdS to promote piezocatalytic hydrogen evolution May 13th, 2022
![]() |
||
![]() |
||
The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
![]() |
![]() |
||
Premium Products | ||
![]() |
||
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
![]() |
||
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
![]() |