Compact design waveguide grating routers

A novel generic design for waveguide grating routers is demonstrated in the InP-InGaAsP material system that reduces the chip size by 50%, while still maintaining relaxed processing tolerances. Experimental results confirm no degradation in device performance for the compact design when compared to conventional devices     

Five channel WDM soliton pulse generation using sinusoidally drivenelectroabsorption modulators in 16×1 laser/modulator array

Five wavelength multiplexed pulse streams are generated in an integrated 16×1 laser modulator array by sinusoidally driving five of the potential 16 electroabsorption modulators. At a repetition rate of 2.5 GHz, near transform-limited pulses spaced in wavelength over 7.6 nm are observed. Pseudorandom coding of one channel is achieved by applying an electrical RZ data signal to the modulator     

Esophageal cyst--a rare cause of backache

BACKGROUND: The duration of action of muscle relaxants is poorly correlated to the rate of decay of their plasma concentration. The plasma concentration of mivacurium may rapidly decrease below its active concentration because of the extensive hydrolysis of mivacurium. By inflating a tourniquet on one upper limb for 3 min after the administration of atracurium, mivacurium or vecuronium, we studied the influence of the initial decline of their plasma concentration on their effect. METHODS: In 50 patients anaesthetised with thiopental, isoflurane and fentanyl, the effect of bolus doses of 0.15 or 0.25 mg.kg-1 mivacurium (MIV 15, MIV 25), 0.3 or 0.5 mg.kg-1 atracurium (ATR 30, ATR 50) and 0.06 or 0.1 mg.kg-1 vecuronium (VEC 06, VEC 10) were measured on both arms (evoked response of the adductor pollicis to train-of-four stimulation every 12 s), a tourniquet being applied on one arm just before and during 3 min after the muscle relaxant bolus. RESULTS: Tourniquet inflation of 3 min almost abolished the neuromuscular effect of mivacurium. In the vecuronium groups and in the ATR 50 group, tourniquet inflation did not modify the maximum degree of depression of the twitch response. Also, the duration of action of vecuronium was unaffected by the tourniquet. In the ATR 30 group, times to return of the twitch response to 25% (duration 25%) and 75% (duration 75%) of control response were significantly shorter in the cuffed arm, 23 min vs 27 min, and 41 min vs 45 min, respectively. In the ATR 50 group, only duration 25% was significantly shorter in the cuffed arm (41 min vs 45 min). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the rate of decline of the plasma concentration of mivacurium is so rapid, that a very low and almost clinically ineffective concentration is present as soon as 3 min after its administration. The results also indicate that the recovery from a mivacurium-induced neuromuscular blockade is not influenced by the rate of decay of its plasma concentration in patients with genotypically normal plasma cholinesterase.     

Elimination of signal distortion and crosstalk from carrier densitychanges in the shared semiconductor amplifier of multifrequency signalsources

The signals from multifrequency sources that utilize a shared semiconductor optical amplifier often exhibit distortion and crosstalk due to carrier density changes in the shared amplifier. We propose a technique that eliminates the signal distortion and crosstalk by keeping the carrier density in the shared amplifier constant via feedforward of the electrical drive signals. We demonstrate the technique using a waveguide grating router multifrequency laser     

Multifrequency lasers and applications in WDM networks

The current status and applications of multifrequency lasers (MFL) are reviewed. An MFL consists of an array of N optical amplifiers monolithically integrated with a 1×N optical multiplexer. The laser provides the functionality of N independent lasers whose optical wavelengths are precisely locked together by the common intracavity optical multiplexer. The design of an MFL together with its fundamental characteristics are discussed, and state-of-the-art results are shown. The functionality of an MFL is compared to that of an integrated DFB array. Finally, we show some applications of single-wavelength tunable transmitters and multiwavelength transmitters     

Digitally tunable laser based on the integration of a waveguidegrating multiplexer and an optical amplifier

A novel monolithic semiconductor laser is demonstrated. The optical cavity comprises a 1×N waveguide grating multiplexer connected to N optical amplifiers. By driving a specific output port, laser oscillation is obtained at the wavelength determined by the wavelength path through the multiplexer. Such a laser is very useful for WDM systems because it is capable of producing a comb of precisely spaced frequencies     

A multifrequency waveguide grating laser by selective area epitaxy

We demonstrate a 6 frequency digitally tunable laser based on a waveguide grating router fabricated using selective area epitaxy (SAE). The laser wavelengths span from 1.527 to 1.557 μm with 6.4 nm spacings. The bandgap variation in the active layer plane is from 1.352 μm for waveguide ribs to 1.605 μm for the amplifiers. ASE noise is suppressed by 35 db. These results demonstrate the flexibility of SAE technology for building complete photonic circuits     

Compact, broadband, polarisation-insensitive 3 dB optical powersplitter on InP

The authors have demonstrated a compact (70 μm free-space radiation length), potentially robust, broadband (1.53-1.56 μm), polarisation-insensitive 3 dB optical power splitter based on InP using free-space radiative input-output coupling. This passive, 3 dB splitter is compatible with photonic integrated circuits     

A 16×1 wavelength division multiplexer with integrateddistributed Bragg reflector lasers and electroabsorption modulators

The integrated operation of a 16×1 wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) source with distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers and electroabsorption modulators has been demonstrated. By using repeated holographic exposures and wet chemical etching, 16 different wavelengths from 1.544 to 1.553 μm with an average channel spacing of 6 Å are obtained. A high-performance combiner is used to obtain a very uniform coupling into the single-output waveguide, and with the integration of an optical amplifier an average optical power of -8 dBm per channel is coupled into a single-mode fiber     

Dispersion-free (de)mux with record figure-of-merit

The authors demonstrate a wavelength (de)mux that is dispersion-free and has significantly better figure-of-merit, defined as 1-dB bandwidth over 20-dB bandwidth, over existing devices. A four-channel demux has been fabricated and the figure-of-merit is 97%. A practical system application of this device has also been demonstrated.