Gigabit free-space multi-level signal transmission with a mid-infrared quantum cascade laser operating at room temperature

• Gigabit free-space transmissions are experimentally demonstrated with a quantum cascaded laser (QCL) emitting at mid-wavelength infrared of 4.65 μm, and a commercial infrared photovoltaic detector. The QCL operating at room temperature is directly modulated using on–off keying and, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, four- and eight-level pulse amplitude modulations (PAM-4, PAM-8). By applying pre- and post-digital equalizations, we achieve up to 3 Gbit/s line data rate in all three modulation configurations with a bit error rate performance of below the 7% overhead hard decision forward error correction limit of 3.8 × 10−3. The proposed transmission link also shows a stable operational performance in the lab environment.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Annan fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Other Physics Topics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Bit error rate

Error correction

Infrared radiation

Modulation

Optical communication

Quantum cascade lasers

Bit error rate (BER) performance

Digital equalization

Free-space transmission

Infrared photovoltaic

Mid-infrared quantum cascade

Mid-wavelength infrared

Operational performance

Quantum-cascaded lasers

Pulse amplitude modulation

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)