Quantum Key Distribution, or QKD, enables two remote parties, “Alice” and “Bob”, who are connected by a passive optical link to securely generate secret key material. Single-photon sources (SPSs) and single-photon detectors (SPDs) are key devices for enabling practical quantum key distributions (QKDs). Single photon generation is necessary for secure quantum transmission; …
Read More »Optical Circulators are building blocks for chips for optical communication networks and quantum computers
Fiber optical circulators are used to separate optical signals that travel in opposite directions in an optic fiber in order to complete bidirectional transmission. Optical circulators are also known as non-reciprocal optics, which means when the light travels in the opposite direction, changes in the light properties are not reversed. …
Read More »Hollow-core optical fibers enable secure communications in data centers, accurate sensing gyro for Aerospace applications
Conventional optical fibers are fabulously successful, but they have profound limitations. They contain a glass core at the center of the fiber through which light is transmitted. However, not only does this glass center limit the speed of the light as it passes through, but it also adversely affects other …
Read More »Solar fiber optic lighting for daylighting of high-rise intensive buildings and military shelters
Conventional daylighting scheme employing windows and skylights are no longer so useful especially for daylighting of high-rise and intensive buildings. Residential buildings with limited natural lighting are generally lit by fuel-based electricity which contributes to increase of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Alternatively, the concentrated solar energy can be transmitted …
Read More »DARPA DeMi developing technologies for space based telescope on it’s military CubeSat satellite for Space Surveillance Awareness
The volume of space between the Earth’s surface out to geosynchronous orbit is enormous—equivalent to 240,000 times all the Earth’s oceans. Yet the number of objects calling that volume home is growing all the time—not just with satellites but with debris of all kinds, natural and manmade. And keeping track …
Read More »DARPA operationalizes Space Surveillance Telescope in Australia, earlier handed over to Air Force Space Command to protect satellites from orbiting junk and space weapons
A U.S.-developed space surveillance telescope has been assembled at a new facility in Western Australia and is expected to start operating in 2022, the U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center announced April 2020. The telescope, designed to track and identify debris and satellites more than 22,000 miles above Earth, …
Read More »Hybrid Free Space Optics (FSO)/Radio Frequency (RF) communication systems can improve the performance of Free space optical communications
Free-space optical communication (FSO) is an optical communication technology that uses light propagating in free space to wirelessly transmit data for telecommunications or computer networking. “Free space” means air, outer space, vacuum, or something similar. FSO operates on the Line-of-Sight phenomenon, consisting of a LASER at source and detector at …
Read More »Faraday rotator mirror
Michelson proposed an interferometric apparatus in 1890 following an earlier suggestion by Fizeau. The invention became the precursor of many important modern optic measurement techniques. The Michelson Interferometer, as it is called, is used to measure small optical path length changes. The classic Michelson Interferometer consists of two mirrors (one forming …
Read More »Rugged, Sensitive Optical Fiber sensors for military sonars and monitoring military assets and earthquakes
The fiber optic sensors also called as optical fiber sensors use optical fiber or sensing element. These Sensors can measure a large variety of parameters, such as temperature, pressure, strain, refractive index, vibrations, displacements, bending, loading, and liquid level or concentration of chemical species. Fiber optic sensors have become a …
Read More »DARPA DODOS develops Optical frequency synthesizers (OFC) chips to enhance LIDAR, coherent communications, and chemical sensing
The need for better radar in World War II drove the development of radio frequency control, and its miniaturization in subsequent decades revolutionized a host of military and consumer applications. The generation of accurate signal frequencies from a single reference oscillator called microwave frequency synthesis, brought about many advanced technologies …
Read More »