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Unfortunately, the plastic pollution increases at an exponential rate and drastically endangers the marine ecosystem. According to World Health Organization (WHO), microplastics in drinking water have become a concern and may be a risk to human health. One of the major efforts to fight against this problem is developing easy-to-use, low-cost, portable microplastic detection systems. To address this issue, here, we present our prototype device based on an optical system that can help detect the microplastics in water. This system that costs less than $370 is essentially a low-cost Raman spectrometer. It includes a collimated laser (5 mW), a sample holder, a notch filter, a diffraction grating, and a CCD sensor all integrated in a 3D printed case. Our experiments show that our system is capable of detecting microplastics in water having a concentration less than 0.015% w/v. We believe that the designed portable device can find a widespread use all over the world to monitor the microplastic content in an easier and cost-effective manner.

In this work, the effect of oscillator phase noise on the bit error rate (BER) for high order QAM communication systems is analyzed. Two high frequency oscillators are designed, built and tested to get real phase noise data, and a BER simulation of a 1024 QAM signal through a super-heterodyne frequency down-converter is implemented using the measured data from the two oscillators as local oscillator sources for the down-converter. A third frequency source is also added to the simulation to visualize the dramatic effect of phase noise on the system BER analysis.

In this manuscript, we experimentally demonstrate a parity-time-symmetric optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with polarization multiplexed channels. We obtained a microwave single-mode oscillation at 9.5 GHz with phase noise values of −116.2 and −122.3 dBc Hz−1 at 10 kHz offset frequencies, and side mode suppression values below −68 and −75 dBc Hz−1, by utilizing a 1 km long and 5 km long single mode fiber delay lines, respectively. Our experimental results suggest that parity-time-symmetric OEOs with polarization multiplexed channels are simple and cost-efficient alternatives to their more complex counterparts.

In this work, we present the modulation instability simulation results for both self-phase modulation and four wave mixing dominant cases by varying the pulse peak power and noise energy using the VPI Photonics Design Suite™.

We present a single pulse Raman distributed temperature sensor using standard single mode fiber and having ~5.2 m spatial resolution at 18.5 km sensing distance with an averaging time of ~3.3 minutes.

Brillouin spectrum of dispersion compensating fiber (DCF38) is investigated and strain and temperature measurement based on Brillouin frequency shift is performed.

We demonstrate the performance of dual-pulse φ-OTDR system at nearby and far-away distances, i.e. at 1.2 km and 49.1 km, in detecting and linearly retrieving the acoustic signal with proper dual-pulse probe lengths.

In this work, we present the signal-to-noise ratio comparison results of six different buried fiber optic cable for identical external perturbations using a home-made direct detection φ-OTDR system.

Date of Conference: 19–23 July 2021 Conference name: OSA Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress 2021 (AIS, FTS, HISE, SENSORS, ES) We experimentally investigate the effect of the probe pulse shape on the performance of φ-OTDR based distributed vibration sensors by comparing the SNR values for rectangular, Gaussian and triangular pulses.

We experimentally analyze the non-linearity effect due to the perturbation amplitude in the ϕ-OTDR based fiber optic distributed vibration sensor by investigating the effects of large disturbance signal.

Date of Conference: 3 - 5 August 2020 Conference name: 14th Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO PR 2020) A simple and effective method for increasing the SNR and range in φ-OTDR based direct-detection distributed acoustic sensors is proposed and experimentally verified. The proposed method results in ~11 dB SNR improvement at 66 km.

Conference name: 2020 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim, CLEO-PR 2020 - Proceedings Date of Conference: 3–5 August 2020 We theoretically model and experimentally demonstrate the photon statistics of Rayleigh backscattered signal in a ϕ-OTDR based distributed fiber optical sensor in the presence of amplified spontaneous emission noise caused by optical pre-amplifier.

A fiber coupled semiconductor ring laser that employs both an amplitude and a phase modulator was built and actively harmonic mode-locked at a repetition rate of 10 GHz. The phase modulator was driven at the cavity fundamental frequency and its effects on the optical spectrum and the optical pulse train were analyzed. The intracavity phase modulation at the cavity fundamental frequency resulted in 40% lower optical pulse amplitude fluctuations and improved the stability of the optical spectrum. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This work was partially supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under Grant 3190696 and ASELSAN A.S. In this work, we present the experimental results of a direct detection phi-OTDR based distributed acoustic sensor system. The system uses two cascaded acousto-optic modulators in order to generate optical pulses with very high extinction ratio and dual photodetector scheme for high dynamic range. The proposed schemes are investigated in detail and their performance enhancement is experimentally verified. Four piezoelectric based fiber stretchers are placed on a similar to 104 km single-mode test fiber at the distances of 1 km, 10 km, 87 km and 102.7 km and used for perturbation tests. The stretchers generated vibration signals which are analyzed to quantify the system performance. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of vibration signals at the monitored distances is measured over the 12-hour recorded data within 34-second time windows considering the multi-point random interference of scattered light and fading phenomena. Using the 12-hour data, SNR histograms at four different locations are generated and mean SNR values are obtained. The signals received from 102.7 km has a maximum SNR of 24.7 dB and a mean SNR of 7.3 dB with a spatial resolution of 15 m. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest-range reported direct detection phi-OTDR based distributed acoustic sensor system. Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) 3190696 ASELSAN A.S.

This work investigates the feasibility of a novel approach for measuring intraocular pressure (IOP) by analyzing micron-level laser-induced bubble characteristics in the intraocular fluid. We believe that this concept may be used as a non-invasive alternative for measuring a patient's IOP by analyzing the laser-induced bubble volume in the intraocular fluid in the anterior chamber of the eye. The behavior of laser-induced bubbles was examined under differing fluid pressure levels and at differing laser pulse energy levels. An intraocular medium-like environment was imitated and an imaging system was designed in order to capture laser-induced bubbles with their movements. The video recordings of the bubbles were processed using custom software, and the volume of the bubbles was estimated using three different approaches. The bubble volumes were estimated more accurately by using the rising velocity of the bubble rather than its direct radii appearances on the images. An inversely proportional relationship was observed between the laser-induced bubble volume and the fluid pressure. IOP can be measured with a non-invasive technique using laser-induced bubble volume. Deeper and detailed studies, including clinical studies, may lead to the use of lasers for measuring IOP.

Date of Conference: 5-10 May 2019 Conference name: Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics This work demonstrates an ultra-long range direct detection fiber optic distributed acoustic sensor which can detect vibrations at a distance of 94.8 km with 10 m resolution along the sensing fiber.

An actively mode-locked, fiber-coupled semiconductor ring laser that employs both a phase modulator and an amplitude modulator was built. The laser was mode locked by loss modulation at 10 GHz and the intracavity phase modulator was driven at the cavity fundamental frequency of 1.63 MHz. The effects of the intracavity phase modulation on the stability of the optical spectrum, the timing jitter, and the amplitude noise of the pulse train was analyzed. It was found that using this method, the amplitude fluctuation can be reduced by 40%, and the stability of the optical spectrum can be improved while keeping the phase noise of the system unchanged.

Date of Conference: 17–18 April 2018 Conference name: Proceedings of SPIE Fiber Optic Sensors and Applications XV In this study, we present a direct detection distributed acoustic sensor based on phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (φ-OTDR) with long sensing range and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is field-tested over a 50 kmlong fiber. Due to the random nature of Rayleigh backscattered light and fading phenomena, it is hard to characterize the performance of the system. For this reason, the performance of our sensor is specified in a statistical manner in which the mean SNR is determined using the histograms of the SNR. The SNR values are measured for identical acoustic signals in five different days, total of 48 hours and the SNR histograms are obtained for fiber distances of 100 m, 12 km, 21 km, 30 km, 40 km and 50 km. The system is field-tested using external disturbances that are generated from a 50-Hz vibrator. The SNR values are extracted from the power spectral density (psd) of the collected data over the monitored fiber span. Our results show that the φ-OTDR system exhibits a mean SNR of 22.5 dB at 50 km distance.

A multifunction optoelectronic gate that can perform as any desired logic gate of two variables was theoretically proposed and a simplified version is experimentally demonstrated. The proposed optoelectronic gate is dynamically configurable, and being wavelength independent, it can act on multiple input optical bits and realize different functions simultaneously. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:969–972, 2015

In this article, we are presenting the experimental results and theoretical analysis of radio frequency (RF) phase noise filtering properties of a high Q cavity actively driven mode-locked laser. The experimental results show that, the phase noise of a 10 GHz RF tone can be filtered by at least 10 dB at 200 kHz offset frequency. A theoretical analysis on the limits of phase noise filtering due to the spontaneous emission and the frequency mismatch between the laser cavity modes and the synthesizer frequency is also included.

In this manuscript, a semiconductor based fiber ring cavity mode-locked laser regeneratively driven at 18 GHz is presented. The optical spectrum of the laser is centered at 1578 nm. The laser is RF injection locked via an external source at 18 GHz. The phase noise of the mode-locked laser is measured and the integrated timing jitter was found to be 10.8 fs (from 100 Hz to 20 MHz) and 13.3 fs (from 100 Hz to Nyquist frequency). The integrated amplitude fluctuation (from 100 Hz to 20 MHz) was less than 0.02%. The laser phase and amplitude noise responses to various injected RF power levels were also investigated. The injection RF power has significant effect on the phase noise and the best jitter value is around 40 dB lower than the cavity regenerated RF power. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement Turkish Ministry of Development - 2014K121010

We have designed and built a fiber coupled semiconductor laser at 1550 nm, which is harmonically mode-locked at 10 GHz by an external RF oscillator. The absolute phase noise of the laser is measured and discussed for two different cavity lengths.

In this manuscript, we have presented the results for RF phase noise filtering effects of mode-locked lasers. Our results show that, the phase noise of a 10GHz RF tone can be filtered by 10 dB.

A slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier (SCOWA) is used to construct a 10-GHz harmonically modelocked laser with an intra-cavity etalon that serves as a high-finesse spectral filter. The laser output is a frequency comb that is actively stabilized to the transmission peaks of the etalon through a Pound-Drever-Hall scheme. The linewidth of the individual comb-lines is ~1 kHz and the frequency instability

This paper presents recent results in the development of novel ultrafast technologies based on the generation and application of stabilized optical frequency combs. By using novel active resonant cavity injection locking techniques, filtering, modulation and detection can be performed directly on individual components of the frequency comb enabling new approaches to optical waveform synthesis, waveform detection and matched filtering, with effective signal processing bandwidths in excess of 1 THz.

Imaging at degraded visual environments is one of the biggest challenges in today's imaging technologies. Especially military and commercial rotary wing aviation is suffering from impaired visual field in sandy, dusty, marine and snowy environments. For example during landing the rotor churns up the particles and creates dense clouds of highly scattering medium, which limits the vision of the pilot and may result in an uncontrolled landing. The vision in such environments is limited because of the high ratio of scattered photons over the ballistic photons which have the image information. We propose to use optical spatial filtering (OSF) method in order to eliminate the scattered photons and only collect the ballistic photons at the receiver. OSF is widely used in microscopy, to the best of our knowledge this will be the first application of OSF for macroscopic imaging. Our experimental results show that most of the scattered photons are eliminated using the spatial filtering in a highly scattering impaired visual field. The results are compared with a standard broad area photo detector which shows the effectiveness of spatial filtering.

Conference Conference: 26th Anniversary World Congress on Biosensors (Biosensors) Location: Gothenburg, SWEDEN Date: MAY 25-27, 2016 Authors acknowledge TUBITAK (Project No: 114E886) and AGU BAP (2015-11) for financial support. Omary Mzava acknowledges TUBITAK for the scholarship (2215). We present a signal amplification method for biosensing applications using magnetic particles. In this method, mobile devices and simple spherical glass beads are used as a low-cost microscope to detect magnetic particles. Magnetic particles have two main functions; 1) conventionally capture, separate and transport target molecules 2) form magnetic dipoles under an applied external magnetic field to attract other magnetized particles. When magnetic particles accumulate and form a cluster, the corresponding pixel area in the image taken by the simple microscope is increased resulting in signal amplification. Current focus of new generation biosensor research is to increase the sensitivity levels of the devices to compete with current lab analysis tools while inherently having other advantages such as being low-cost, portable and simple. Biosensors based on micro/nano magnetic particles use various measurement techniques and amplification methods. In order to fully benefit from the advantages of micro/nano technology based systems, measurement set up must be also portable and have high sensitivity. Mobile devices and applications are taking place in medical fields and have high potential for future. In this work mobile devices are employed as measurement setups for the magnetic particle based sensing and signal amplification. The amplification method is not based on bimolecular binding thus cost efficient. After the images of the magnetic particles are taken, these images are sent to cloud computing for analysis by the mobile device. Matlab codes run on cloud servers for processing the images. Finally results are received and displayed on the mobile device. The mobile device based imaging system is able to detect 7 mu m size particles within a 1500 mu m x1500 mu m area and magnetic bead accumulation resulted in at least 5-fold signal amplification. The applied magnetic field is approximately 15 mT and the cost of the system excluding mobile device is under 20 cents. The method is promising for immunomagnetic bead assisted biosensors. (c) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. TUBITAK / 114E886 - 2215 AGU BAP / 2015-11

We are pleased to acknowledge Dr. D. Noordegraaf of NKT Photonics for the loan of the photonic lantern device used in the experiments. The experimental work of this manuscript is supported by the internal funding of Applied Communication Sciences and the numerical calculations are supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council Of Turkey (TUBITAK) Project no 114E402. In this work, a photonic-lantern-based coherent LIDAR system is experimentally demonstrated and the voltage signal-to-noise ratio improvement is analyzed. A voltage signal-to-noise ratio (SNRV) improvement of 2.8 is demonstrated experimentally for photonic-lantern-based coherent receivers relative to single-mode coherent receivers. The voltage signal-to-noise ratio improvement is obtained when other parameters are kept constant. We have also analyzed the effect of random optical power distribution among the single-mode fibers. We found that the distribution does not significantly impact the SNRV improvement. The mean value of voltage signal-to-noise ratio improvement is found to be similar to 2.4. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America Applied Communication Sciences Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) 114E402

A novel method of measuring the optical frequency stability of a continuous-wave (CW) laser by using an etalon-based optoelectronic oscillator is demonstrated. A 1000 finesse Fabry-Perot etalon is used as a reference which eliminates the need of using an independent optical source as a frequency reference. Using this technique, the optical frequency stability of a CW laser is measured with ~3.5-kHz optical frequency resolution at update rates of 90 Hz.

In this work, we demonstrate mode partition noise in the radio-frequency spectra of periodic signals generated using electrical pattern generators that are often used in digital optical communications and error testing. This effect makes the measurement of the amplitude modulation noise of the repetitive signal through its single sideband (SSB) power spectral density (PSD) at its fundamental frequency inaccurate. This is demonstrated for a square wave, where the dependence of the SSB PSD on the duty cycle of the signal is experimentally shown. To alleviate this ambiguity, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a photonic up-convert and down-convert method that results in invariant SSB power spectra at the signal's fundamental frequency.

In this work, a 10.287-GHz semiconductor-based harmonically mode-locked laser with 1000 finesse intracavity etalon is demonstrated. The timing jitter integrated from 1 Hz to 100 MHz (Nyquist) is 3 fs (14 fs). The optical linewidth is ~500 Hz and the optical frequency stability is

In this letter, a feedforward system is developed for control of a quasi-continuous-wave (CW) chirped source. The goal of this study is to improve the uniformity of the temporal profile of a quasi-CW chirped laser source. The chirped spectrum input to the system is dynamically flattened using a feedforward scheme having bandwidth in excess of 1 GHz, resulting in more than three times reduction on the contrast of the input spectrum. A uniform chirped spectrum laser source can be used in time-stretched photonic analog-to-digital conversion, as part of laser radar system, or for optical coherence tomography.

In this letter, we introduce a novel interferometric method for dynamic extinction ratio measurement of temporally demultiplexed pulses. A high extinction intensity modulator is used in order to temporally demultiplex the pulse train. The resulting extinction ratio is measured to be 44 dB. Our method has a dynamic range of ~60 dB. To our knowledge, this is the highest dynamic extinction ratio measurement method reported to date for high-speed optical modulators.

We propose a theory and experimentally verify ultraflat comb generation by dual-sine-wave phase-only modulation. This novel approach requires a single optical element and is very practical and efficient in terms of both power budget and bandwidth. Using this approach, we have generated two optical spectra, one with 11 comb lines and 1.9-dB flatness and the other with 9 comb lines and 0.8-dB flatness.

In this paper, we describe a detailed performance comparison of alternative single-pixel, single-mode LIDAR architectures including (i) linear-mode APD-based direct-detection, (ii) optically-preamplified PIN receiver, (iii) PINbased coherent-detection, and (iv) Geiger-mode single-photon-APD counting. Such a comparison is useful when considering next-generation LIDAR on a chip, which would allow one to leverage extensive waveguide-based structures and processing elements developed for telecom and apply them to small form-factor sensing applications. Models of four LIDAR transmit and receive systems are described in detail, which include not only the dominant sources of receiver noise commonly assumed in each of the four detection limits, but also additional noise terms present in realistic implementations. These receiver models are validated through the analysis of detection statistics collected from an experimental LIDAR testbed. The receiver is reconfigurable into four modes of operation, while transmit waveforms and channel characteristics are held constant. The use of a diffuse hard target highlights the importance of including speckle noise terms in the overall system analysis. All measurements are done at 1550 nm, which offers multiple system advantages including less stringent eye safety requirements and compatibility with available telecom components, optical amplification, and photonic integration. Ultimately, the experimentally-validated detection statistics can be used as part of an end-to-end system model for projecting rate, range, and resolution performance limits and tradeoffs of alternative integrated LIDAR architectures.

We analyze and demonstrate free-space to 19-port photonic lantern light collection efficiency for scattering from diffuse objects. A single-mode collection efficiency improvement of ~8 dB is demonstrated in the near field region.

In this paper, we show recent results in the use of stabilized optical frequency combs from mode-locked diode lasers operating in the telecommunication C-band for applications in coherent parallel signal processing architectures [1]. For selecting and modulating single components within the frequency comb, novel approaches that rely on the properties of injection locked oscillators will be used. These approaches will show that one can simultaneously select single components from a frequency comb and realize either modulation or detection functionality. To demonstrate how stabilized frequency combs can be used in a coherent signal processing scenario, we use the frequency combs and injection locked microcavity lasers to perform real time waveform generation, measurement, and matched filtering.

A comparative study of the performance of 10 GHz, semiconductor-based comb sources is presented with regard to the optical linewidth, stability of the comb modes, total optical bandwidth and timing jitter.

A lidar system employing a train of oppositely chirped pulses is demonstrated to perform simultaneous Doppler velocimetry and submillimeter resolution ranging of a target moving at >330 km/h with

In this paper, the concept of supermode is introduced for long-distance optical transmission systems. The supermodes exploit coupling between the cores of a multi-core fiber, in which the core-to-core distance is much shorter than that in conventional multi-core fiber. The use of supermodes leads to a larger mode effective area and higher mode density than the conventional multi-core fiber. Through simulations, we show that the proposed coupled multi-core fiber allows lower modal dependent loss, mode coupling and differential modal group delay than few-mode fibers. These properties suggest that the coupled multi-core fiber could be a good candidate for both spatial division multiplexing and single-mode operation.

This work presents an extensive investigation of the performance characteristics of a semiconductor-based Theta cavity design laser with an intra-cavity Fabry-Perot etalon operating at 100 MHz repetition rate. The Theta laser being an external cavity harmonically mode-locked semiconductor laser exhibits supermode noise that impairs its performance. A fiberized Fabry-Perot periodic filter inserted within the Theta laser cavity mitigates the contribution of the supermode noise to the pulse-to-pulse energy variance by 20 times. The laser has both a compressed output with picosecond pulse duration and a uniform intensity quasi-CW linearly chirped pulse output with 10 nm bandwidth. Long-term stability is attained by referencing the cavity length to the etalon using an intra-cavity Hansch-Couillaud locking scheme.

An optical comb source based on a slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier (SCOWA) is presented. The laser is harmonically mode-locked at 10.287 GHz repetition rate and stabilized to an intra-cavity Fabry-Perot etalon via Pound- Drever-Hall locking. The Fabry-Perot etalon serves as a reference for the optical frequency of the comb-lines and suppresses the fiber cavity modes to allow only a single longitudinal mode-set to oscillate, generating a frequency comb spaced by the repetition rate. The pulse-to-pulse timing jitter and energy fluctuations are < 2 fs and < 0.03%, respectively (integrated from 1Hz to 100 MHz). Fundamental to this result is the incorporation of the SCOW amplifier as the gain medium and the use of an ultra-low noise sapphire-loaded cavity oscillator to mode-lock the laser. The SCOWA has higher saturation power than commercially available gain media, permitting higher intra-cavity power as well as available power at the output, increasing the power of the photodetected RF tones which increases their signal-to-noise ratio. A high visibility optical frequency comb is observed spanning ~3 nm (at -10 dB), with optical SNR > 60 dB for a cavity with no dispersion compensation. Initial results of a dispersion compensated cavity are presented. A spectral width of ~7.6 nm (-10 dB) was obtained for this case and the pulses can be compressed to near the transform limit at ~930 fs.

This work discusses the development of a frequency chirped, low repetition rate, semiconductor based mode-locked laser having reduced noise over previous demonstrations. Specifically, we present a major upgrade on the 100 MHz harmonically mode-locked Theta (Θ) laser cavity design in the form of the introduction of an intra-cavity fiberized Fabry-Perot etalon. The initial demonstration of the Theta cavity design offered improved energy per pulse and a linearly chirped pulse output compared to conventional cavity designs. Nonetheless, it suffered from pulse-to-pulse timing and energy noise. The noisy operation arises from the harmonic nature of the laser. To mitigate this effect we have inserted a fiberized etalon within the laser cavity. The intra-cavity etalon stores and inter-mixes the pulses of the harmonically mode-locked laser, as well as enforces lasing on a single optical mode-set from the multiple interleaved sets supported by the mode-locked laser due to its harmonic nature. This leads to the generation of a stable optical frequency comb with 100 MHz spacing and the suppression of the RF super-mode noise spurs, which results in a reduction of the laser noise. Due to fiber length drift in both the fiberized laser cavity and the fiberized etalon, a long-term stabilization scheme is necessary. An intra-cavity Hansch - Couillaud scheme is employed. The laser outputs chirped pulses with 10 nm of bandwidth. This work provides an in depth analysis of both the development of the Theta cavity with the intra-cavity etalon and the performance of the developed laser system.

A lidar based on the coherent detection of oppositely chirped optical pulses is used to perform range measurements with sub-millimeter resolution and simultaneous velocity measurements. A target moving at 212km/h is tracked with 20dB SNR.

A 10 GHz mode-locked laser based on a Slab-Coupled Optical Waveguide Amplifier with an intra-cavity etalon is presented. The timing jitter is ∼2.3 fs (10 Hz to 100 MHz), the lowest reported to our knowledge.