Research Projects

The rapid growth of internet traffic has necessitated a higher bandwidth data transport network, with 5G currently adopting the 30-300 GHz band for communication. However, the expected growth of internet users is expected to reach 5 billion by 2023, necessitating a data transmission rate beyond 100 Gbit/s to Tb/s. This necessitates the adoption of 6G communication, which focuses on the 0.3 THz to 10 THz range. supercontinuum (sC) generation has gained attention due to its coherent, wideband spectrum and excellent spectrum flatness, making it a promising option for various applications, including optical coherent tomography, microscopy, spectroscopy, frequency comb-based metrology, and telecommunication. sCs are also desirable for optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), and optical arbitrary waveform generation. Optical frequency comb (OFC) has high repetition rate and huge spectrum bandwidth, but these techniques lack the high degree of flatness essential for optical communication. Direct generation techniques are difficult to achieve Gaussian, parabolic pulse profiles. This project proposal proposes a prototype for supercontinuum-based optical frequency comb generation and temporal pulse compression for 6G communication applications. The setup consists of a nano-second passively harmonically mode-locked fibre laser, LiNbO3 Mach-Zehnder modulator, highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF), and semiconductor optical amplifier-Mach-Zehnder interferometer (sOA-MZI), connected to single mode optical waveguides. The laser cavity length will be chosen between different harmonic mode locking orders, allowing for better pulse propagation and control over the optical parametric mechanism, boosting supercontinuum generation and pulse compression.