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International audience; A simultaneous frequency up conversion of four intermediate frequency (IF) signals is carried out by utilizing a semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) in a differential configuration for radio over fiber applications. A sampling signal compelled by an optical pulse clock source produces 10-ps-width pulses at a repetition rate domain that is from 7.8 to 19.5 GHz. The four IF signals carrying quadratic phase shift keying (QPSK) data at frequencies fm are up converted at the SOA-MZI output at mixing frequencies nfsk ± fm, where k and m equal 1, 2, 3, and 4 and n is the harmonic rank of the sampling signal. The simulation study for simultaneous frequency up conversion relied on the SOA-MZI sampling mixer is developed to acquire the conversion gain and the error vector magnitude (EVM) in the repetition rate range. Using the virtual photonics integrated simulator, we show that incrementing the repetition rate from 7.8 to 19.5 GHz improves the competence and merit of the optical transmission system due to a better signal level and a lower aliased noise power with a higher sampling rate. Positive conversion gains were achieved at a higher mixing frequency for each channel. Concomitantly, the benefit on the conversion gain provided by augmenting the sampling frequency is 14 dB. By increasing the repetition rate, the EVM can be ameliorated up to 12% for all channels. In addition, it degrades more when the frequency channel increases over the repetition rate range. The maximum bit rate of 25 Gbit/s with a QPSK modulation meets the forward error correction limit

The photon's frequency degree of freedom, being compatible with mature telecom infrastructure, offers large potential for the stable and controllable realization of photonic quantum processing applications such as the quantum internet. The Hong–Ou–Mandel effect, as a two-photon interference phenomenon, serves as a central building block for such frameworks. A key element yet missing to enable meaningful frequency-based implementations as well as scalability in the number of processed photons, is the demonstration of the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect between independently created photons of different frequencies. The experimental implementation of bosonic and fermionic frequency domain Hong–Ou–Mandel interference between independently generated single photons is reported here, with measured visibilities of 74.31% ± 3.56% and 86.44% ± 8.27%, respectively. This is achieved through a scalable photonic frequency circuit that creates two post-selected pure single photons, which undergo frequency mixing at an electro-optic phase modulator. The system is on-the-fly reconfigurable allowing to probe bosonic and fermionic Hong–Ou–Mandel interference in the same experimental setup. The work demonstrates the versatility of frequency domain processing and its scalability toward higher photon numbers, which enables new quantum gate concepts as well as the establishment of frequency-based large-scale quantum networks. © 2021 The Authors. Laser & Photonics Reviews published by Wiley-VCH GmbH

Microfluidic laboratories-on-a-chip (LoCs) are replacing the conventional biochemical analyzers and are able to integrate the necessary functions for biochemical analysis on-chip. There are several types of LoCs, each having its advantages and limitations. In this paper we are interested in flow-based LoCs, in which a continuous flow of liquid is manipulated using integrated microvalves. By combining several microvalves, more complex units, such as micropumps, switches, mixers, and multiplexers, can be built. We consider that the architecture of the LoC is given, and we are interested in synthesizing an implementation, consisting of the binding of operations in the application to the functional units of the architecture, the scheduling of operations and the routing and scheduling of the fluid flows, such that the application completion time is minimized. To solve this problem, we propose a list scheduling-based application mapping (LSAM) framework and evaluate it by using real-life as well as synthetic benchmarks. When biochemical applications contain fluids that may adsorb on the substrate on which they are transported, the solution is to use rinsing operations for contamination avoidance. Hence, we also propose a rinsing heuristic, which has been integrated in the LSAM framework.

We present a high-efficiency optical parametric source for broadband vibrational sum-frequency generation (BB-VSFG) for the chemically important mid-infrared spectral range at 2800–3600 cm−1 to study hydrogen bonding interactions affecting the structural organization of biomolecules at water interfaces. The source consists of a supercontinuum-seeded, dual-beam optical parametric amplifier with two broadband infrared output beams and a chirped sum-frequency mixing stage providing narrowband visible pulses with adjustable bandwidth. Utilizing a pulse energy of only 60 μJ from a turn-key, 1.03-μm pump laser operating at a repetition rate of 100 kHz, the source delivers 6-cycle infrared pulses at 1.5 and 3.2 μm with pulse energies of 4.6 and 1.8 μJ, respectively, and narrowband pulses at 0.515 μm with a pulse energy of 5.0 μJ. The 3.2-μm pulses are passively carrier envelope phase stabilized with fluctuations at the 180-mrad level over a 10-s time period. The 1.5-μm beamline can be exploited to deliver pump pulses for time-resolved studies after suitable frequency up-conversion. The high efficiency, stability, and two orders of magnitude higher repetition rate of the source compared to typically employed systems offer great potential for providing a boost in sensitivity in BB-VSFG experiments at a reduced cost.

Twin-slot antennas and coplanar waveguides are a popular choice for coupling signals to state-of-the-art mixers and detectors at terahertz frequencies. Although these sensors show promising performance in terms of noise temperature, they usually also show a considerable downward shift in the center frequency of their spectral response, especially when compared with calculations obtained with commonly used simplified models. In this paper, we describe an accurate and complete electromagnetic model of these detectors, which represents a significant improvement over other published approaches. We present the procedure used to obtain a very good agreement between measurements and calculations at terahertz frequencies both in terms of center frequency and bandwidth. The wide variety of measured and calculated data presented in this paper also demonstrates the effectiveness and reliability of the electromagnetic model in all the investigated frequency bands. © 2005 IEEE.

Series-fed coplanar-waveguide embedding circuits have been recently developed for terahertz mixers using, in particular, superconducting devices as sensors. Although these mixers show promising performance, they usually also show a considerable downward shift in the resonating frequency when compared with calculations using simplified models. This effect is basically caused by parasitics due to the extremely small details (in terms of wavelength) of the device and to the connection of the remaining circuitry (i.e., RF filter). In this paper, we present an improved equivalent-network model of such devices that agrees with measured results. We first propose a method to calculate the characteristic impedance and propagation constant of the coplanar waveguide, etched between two semi-infinite media, which connect the receiving slot antennas to the superconducting device. In the formulation, we take into account, for the first time, the radiation power leakage. We then describe the procedure to calculate the reactances due to the detailed geometry of the mixer device and circuit and we correct the input impedance, calculated with a commonly used simplified network. Finally, by comparing our results with a complete set of measured data, for seven mixers in the range between 500 GHz-3 THz, we analyze the features of our model and propose further improvements. Useful guidelines for designing terahertz mixer circuits are also given.

In this letter, we analyze the suitability of the double gate MOSFETs (DG MOSFETs) for RF-mixer applications from the point of optimizing the transconductance gain, power consumption, and area. Mixer topologies using the 0.13-μm conventional MOSFETs, simultaneously driven DG MOSFETs (SDDG) and the independently driven DG MOSFETs (IDDG) are compared using extensive device simulations. In the frequency range 1-40 GHz, our simulation results show that the mixer circuits realized using the SDDG technologies show an order of magnitude lower power-area product, for a given transconductance gain, compared to the conventional and the IDDG technologies., IEEE

Using the 0.15 um GaAs mHEMT process from WIN semiconductors, two 60 GHz down-conversion mixers have been designed, processed and measured. Both designs include a LO buffer amplifier to allow for a reduced external LO power level. With an LO power of +10 dBm, the measured RF input match is better than -15 dB at 60 GHz and the conversion loss is below 8 dB at 2 GHz intermediate frequency.

Twin-slot antennas and coplanar waveguides are a popular choice for coupling signals to state-of-the-art mixers and detectors at terahertz frequencies. Although these sensors show promising performance in terms of noise temperature, they usually also show a considerable downward shift in the center frequency of their spectral response, especially when compared with calculations obtained with commonly used simplified models. In this paper, we describe an accurate and complete electromagnetic model of these detectors, which represents a significant improvement over other published approaches. We present the procedure used to obtain a very good agreement between measurements and calculations at terahertz frequencies both in terms of center frequency and bandwidth. The wide variety of measured and calculated data presented in this paper also demonstrates the effectiveness and reliability of the electromagnetic model in all the investigated frequency bands. © 2005 IEEE.

Series-fed coplanar-waveguide embedding circuits have been recently developed for terahertz mixers using, in particular, superconducting devices as sensors. Although these mixers show promising performance, they usually also show a considerable downward shift in the resonating frequency when compared with calculations using simplified models. This effect is basically caused by parasitics due to the extremely small details (in terms of wavelength) of the device and to the connection of the remaining circuitry (i.e., RF filter). In this paper, we present an improved equivalent-network model of such devices that agrees with measured results. We first propose a method to calculate the characteristic impedance and propagation constant of the coplanar waveguide, etched between two semi-infinite media, which connect the receiving slot antennas to the superconducting device. In the formulation, we take into account, for the first time, the radiation power leakage. We then describe the procedure to calculate the reactances due to the detailed geometry of the mixer device and circuit and we correct the input impedance, calculated with a commonly used simplified network. Finally, by comparing our results with a complete set of measured data, for seven mixers in the range between 500 GHz-3 THz, we analyze the features of our model and propose further improvements. Useful guidelines for designing terahertz mixer circuits are also given.

International audience; We study, with numerical simulations using the generalized nonlinear envelope equation, the processes of optical parametric and difference- and sum-frequency generation (SFG) with incoherent pumps in optical media with both quadratic and third-order nonlinearity, such as periodically poled lithium niobate. With ultrabroadband amplified spontaneous emission pumps or continua (spectral widths > 10 THz), group-velocity matching of a near-IR pump and a short-wavelength mid-IR (MIR) idler in optical parametric generation may lead to more than 15-fold relative spectral narrowing of the generated MIR signal. Moreover, the SFG process may also lead to 6-fold signal coherence improvements. When using relatively narrowband filtered noise pumps (e.g., spectral widths < 1 THz), the signal from optical parametric, sum-frequency, and difference- frequency generation has nearly the same spectral width as that of the incoherent pump.