There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

다중혈관 관상동맥 환자에서 y-문합을 이용하여 양쪽 내흉동맥만을 사용한 우회술의 조기 성적

On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of 1.0×10(-21). It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203,000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1σ. The source lies at a luminosity distance of 410(-180)(+160)  Mpc corresponding to a redshift z=0.09(-0.04)(+0.03). In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are 36(-4)(+5)M⊙ and 29(-4)(+4)M⊙, and the final black hole mass is 62(-4)(+4)M⊙, with 3.0(-0.5)(+0.5)M⊙c(2) radiated in gravitational waves. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals. These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.

/pdf/the-observation-of-gravitational-waves-from-a-binary-black-58srpupgg9.pdf

The Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

Microwave photonics, which brings together the worlds of radiofrequency engineering and optoelectronics, has attracted great interest from both the research community and the commercial sector over the past 30 years and is set to have a bright future. The technology makes it possible to have functions in microwave systems that are complex or even not directly possible in the radiofrequency domain and also creates new opportunities for telecommunication networks. Here we introduce the technology to the photonics community and summarize recent research and important applications.

Microwave photonics combines two worlds

An overview of analog microwave photonics will be presented. The performance requirements for externally-modulated analog microwave photonic links will be reviewed with specific emphasis placed on modulator efficiency, laser noise, detected photocurrent, and link linearity.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/6387506/6403300/06403360.pdf

Microwave photonics

We demonstrate the first gigabit/s modulated wireless data transmission using uncooled directly modulated lasers for low cost solution with remote millimetre-wave 40 GHz LO. Error free transmission (BER <10-9) is achieved for downlink and uplink.

Millimetre-wave Gigabit/s Wireless-over-Fibre Transmission Using Low Cost Uncooled Devices with Remote Local Oscillator Delivery

An example photodetector includes a waveguide structure having an active waveguide comprising an absorber for converting photons conveying an optical signal into charge carriers conveying a corresponding electrical signal; a carrier collection layer for transporting the charge carriers conveying the electrical signal; and a secondary waveguide immediately adjacent to the carrier collection layer, for receiving the photons to be detected, and which is evanescently coupled to the active waveguide.

Photodetector including multiple waveguides

An Indium Phosphide-based device, switched by telecommunication wavelength laser pulses capable of operating at microwave frequencies up to 15 GHz has been designed and fabricated. Initial results confirm that using high energy nitrogen ion implantation to create EL-2 type trapping levels produces a photocarrier recombination time of a few picoseconds. The ion size and mass selected produces uniform bulk point defects in an In0.53Ga0.47As light absorbing region leading to high photocurrent mobility not exhibited in heavy ion irradiated samples resulting in a reduced peak pulse power requirement to switch the device.

Nitrogen ion implanted InP based photo-switch

We report generation of single sideband millimetre-wave modulated optical signals by a reference-modulated optical injection phase-lock loop. A 36 GHz 68 Mbit/s BPSK signal is transmitted over 25 km of unamplified SMF with 8 dB optical power margin and BER<10/sup -9/.

Millimetre-wave over fibre transmission using a BPSK reference-modulated optical injection phase-lock loop

We report the analysis and application of uncooled, directly-modulated high-speed DFB lasers with emphasis on their analogue transmission performance. Fibre-optic links employing such lasers are shown to meet the most stringent requirements of analogue systems at both high carrier frequencies and high temperatures. Spurious-free dynamic ranges (SFDR) exceeding 100dB Hz 2/3 and 90dB Hz 2/3 and input third-order intercept points (IIP3) above 20dBm and 18dBm are reported for carrier frequencies up to 20GHz at 25°C and up to 10GHz at 85°C, respectively. The error-vector magnitude (EVM) for a 256-QAM modulated signal transmitted over 15km of SMF remains below 1.9% for carrier frequencies of both 2GHz and 5GHz for all measured temperatures. The link performance is assessed by using 3GPP W-CDMA, IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11b signals. In all cases the EVM remains within the standard specification, for fibre-optic link lengths of up to 10km and laser operating temperatures of up to 70°C. Finally, an IEEE 802.11b WLAN demonstrator is presented, allowing antenna remoting over up to 1000m of 62.5/125 m MMF. Keywords: analogue modulation, distributed feedback laser, spurious-free dynamic range, error-vector magnitude, antenna remoting, 3GPP W-CDMA, WLAN, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b.

Alwyn J. Seeds

Papers

Millimetre-wave Gigabit/s Wireless-over-Fibre Transmission Using Low Cost Uncooled Devices with Remote Local Oscillator Delivery

Photodetector including multiple waveguides

Nitrogen ion implanted InP based photo-switch

Millimetre-wave over fibre transmission using a BPSK reference-modulated optical injection phase-lock loop

High-dynamic-range linear analog data links (1-20 GHz) using room temperature DFB laser diodes