Scientists devise tiny liquid crystal devices for telecommunications
The researchers are at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, managed by DOE's Office of Science, and at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies' Research and Development arm.
"Most designs for these distortion-correcting devices rely on lithium niobate in spite of the high cost associated with these materials," says Ron Pindak, a physicist at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven Lab and a coauthor of the study. "Our device has many advantages: its speed is fast enough for these corrections, it is also reset free, and it has a potential to be low in cost."
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In an optical fiber, the signal is carried by utlrashort pulses of light. Initially, in each pulse, the light's electric field follows a given direction. Then, because the optical fiber is not perfectly circular, the electric field's direction, or polarization, splits into two components that propagate at different speeds, causing the pulse to spread, an effect referred to as polarization mode dispersion (PMD).
External mechanical vibrations (caused by a passing train or high winds, for example) cause the PMD to vary with time. At very high transmission rates-- which can reach beyond 40 billion pulses per second, these time-varying distortions are so severe that they need to be compensated for to achieve reliable operation of the optical transmission. Current optical transmission systems include, at regular intervals, PMD-compensating devices, which incorporate a device to control the polarization state of the optical pulses. Most of the existing designs of polarization controllers rely on lithium niobate because of its high speed, which is needed to keep up with the mechanical vibrations and other effects that cause the distortions.
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"Conventional wisdom suggested that liquid crystals could never achieve the necessary speeds," explains John Rogers, director of the Nanotechnology Research Department at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and a coauthor of the study. "Our work shows not only that liquid crystals can be fast enough, but also that the devices themselves can be built right on the tip of an optical fiber, in a very compact and attractive geometry."
The researchers devised a new approach to correct the optical polarizations fast enough to compensate for disturbances in the fiber. "Say you want to rotate polarization by one degree," says Bharat Acharya, the study's lead author and a post-doctoral contract physicist working at Bell Labs as part of the National Science Foundation's academic-liaison-with-industry program. "In our approach, you initially apply an electrical 'overdrive pulse' that is oriented to turn the liquid crystal molecules by 70 degrees, but then you immediately stop the pulse after the molecules have rotated by only one degree. In this way, the molecules rotate by one degree much faster than if you had applied a pulse with the same speed to turn them by only one degree."
Successful tests of this device, performed in collaboration with Lothar Moller, another physicist at Bell Labs, have generated considerable interest in the field. A conference proceeding describing the test results was ranked as one of the most important contributions to the upcoming Optical Fiber Conference in March 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia. Additionally, Bell Lab scientists are also interacting with industrial partners to explore the manufacture and commercialization of these devices. - by Patrice Pages
Media contact: Mona Rowe, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 631-344-5056, mrowe@bnl.gov
Technical Contact: Ron Pindak, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 631-344-7259, pindak@bnl.gov
Related Web Links Bell Laboratories
"In-fiber nematic liquid crystal optical modulator based on in-plane switching with microsecond response time," Bharat R. Acharya, K. W. Baldwin, R. A. MacHarrie, John A. Rogers, C. C. Huang, and R. Pindak, Applied Physics Letters, 81:27, pp. 5243-5245, December 30, 2002 [subscription required]
Funding: The National Synchrotron Light Source is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. This research is supported by DOE's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation.
The National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York is a national user research facility funded by the DOE's Office of Basic Energy Science, which supports basic research in a variety of scientific fields. The NSLS operates two electron storage rings: an X-Ray ring and a Vacuum UltraViolet ring which provide intense light spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from the infrared through x-rays. Each year over 2500 scientists from universities, industries and government labs perform research at the NSLS.
Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies. Brookhaven also builds and operates major facilities available to university, industrial, and government scientists. The Laboratory is managed by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited liability company founded by Stony Brook University and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology organization.
Author: Patrice Pages is a science writer at Brookhaven National Laboratory's (BNL's) Media and Communications Office and the National Synchrotron Light Source's Office of Information and Outreach at BNL. He has a Ph.D. in particle physics from the University of Strasbourg in France and an MS in science and technology journalism from Texas A&M University. He worked previously as a science writer for Texas A&M's Office of University Relations. For more science news, see Brookhaven National Laboratory News.