Unconventional phase transition of phase-change-memory materials for optical data storage

Recent years, optically controlled phase-change memory draws intensive attention owing to some advanced applications including integrated all-optical nonvolatile memory, in-memory computing, and neuromorphic computing. The light-induced phase transition is the key for this technology. Traditional understanding on the role of light is the heating effect. Generally, the RESET operation of phase-change memory is believed to be a melt-quenching-amorphization process. However, some recent experimental and theoretical investigations have revealed that ultrafast laser can manipulate the structures of phase-change materials by non-thermal effects and induces unconventional phase transitions including solid-to-solid amorphization and order-to-order phase transitions. Compared with the conventional thermal amorphization,these transitions have potential superiors such as faster speed, better endurance, and low power consumption. This article summarizes some recent progress of experimental observations and theoretical analyses on these unconventional phase transitions. The discussions mainly focus on the physical mechanism at atomic scale to provide guidance to control the phase transitions for optical storage. Outlook on some possible applications of the non-thermal phase transition is also presented to develop new types of devices.

Near-perfect fidelity polarization-encoded multilayer optical data storage based on aligned gold nanorods

Encoding information in light polarization is of great importance in facilitating optical data storage(ODS)for information security and data storage capacity escalation.However,despite recent advances in nanophotonic techniques vastly en-hancing the feasibility of applying polarization channels,the data fidelity in reconstructed bits has been constrained by severe crosstalks occurring between varied polarization angles during data recording and reading process,which gravely hindered the utilization of this technique in practice.In this paper,we demonstrate an ultra-low crosstalk polarization-en-coding multilayer ODS technique for high-fidelity data recording and retrieving by utilizing a nanofibre-based nanocom-posite film involving highly aligned gold nanorods(GNRs).With parallelizing the gold nanorods in the recording medium,the information carrier configuration minimizes miswriting and misreading possibilities for information input and output,respectively,compared with its randomly self-assembled counterparts.The enhanced data accuracy has significantly im-proved the bit recall fidelity that is quantified by a correlation coefficient higher than 0.99.It is anticipated that the demon-strated technique can facilitate the development of multiplexing ODS for a greener future.

Ostensibly perpetual optical data storage in glass with ultra-high stability and tailored photoluminescence

Long-term optical data storage(ODS)technology is essential to break the bottleneck of high energy consumption for information storage in the current era of big data.Here,ODS with an ultralong lifetime of 2×10^(7)years is attained with single ultrafast laser pulse induced reduction of Eu^(3+)ions and tailoring of optical properties inside the Eu-doped aluminosilicate glasses.We demonstrate that the induced local modifications in the glass can stand against the temperature of up to 970 K and strong ultraviolet light irradiation with the power density of 100 kW/cm^(2).Furthermore,the active ions of Eu^(2+)exhibit strong and broadband emission with the full width at half maximum reaching 190 nm,and the photoluminescence(PL)is flexibly tunable in the whole visible region by regulating the alkaline earth metal ions in the glasses.The developed technology and materials will be of great significance in photonic applications such as long-term ODS.

Delay-Differentiated Scheduling in Optical Packet Switches for Cloud Data Centers

We consider differentiated timecritical task scheduling in a N×N input queued optical packet s w itch to ens ure 100% throughput and meet different delay requirements among various modules of data center. Existing schemes either consider slot-by-slot scheduling with queue depth serving as the delay metric or assume that each input-output connection has the same delay bound in the batch scheduling mode. The former scheme neglects the effect of reconfiguration overhead, which may result in crippled system performance, while the latter cannot satisfy users' differentiated Quality of Service(Qo S) requirements. To make up these deficiencies, we propose a new batch scheduling scheme to meet the various portto-port delay requirements in a best-effort manner. Moreover, a speedup is considered to compensate for both the reconfiguration overhead and the unavoidable slots wastage in the switch fabric. With traffic matrix and delay constraint matrix given, this paper proposes two heuristic algorithms Stringent Delay First(SDF) and m-order SDF(m-SDF) to realize the 100% packet switching, while maximizing the delay constraints satisfaction ratio. The performance of our scheme is verified by extensive numerical simulations.

SDN Orchestration for Dynamic End-to-End Control of Data Center Multi-Domain Optical Networking

New and emerging use cases, such as the interconnection of geographically distributed data centers(DCs), are drawing attention to the requirement for dynamic end-to-end service provisioning, spanning multiple and heterogeneous optical network domains. This heterogeneity is, not only due to the diverse data transmission and switching technologies, but also due to the different options of control plane techniques. In light of this, the problem of heterogeneous control plane interworking needs to be solved, and in particular, the solution must address the specific issues of multi-domain networks, such as limited domain topology visibility, given the scalability and confidentiality constraints. In this article, some of the recent activities regarding the Software-Defined Networking(SDN) orchestration are reviewed to address such a multi-domain control plane interworking problem. Specifically, three different models, including the single SDN controller model, multiple SDN controllers in mesh, and multiple SDN controllers in a hierarchical setting, are presented for the DC interconnection network with multiple SDN/Open Flow domains or multiple Open Flow/Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching( GMPLS) heterogeneous domains. I n addition, two concrete implementations of the orchestration architectures are detailed, showing the overall feasibility and procedures of SDN orchestration for the end-to-endservice provisioning in multi-domain data center optical networks.

The 8×10 GHz Receiver Optical Subassembly Based on Silica Hybrid Integration Technology for Data Center Interconnection

An 8×10 GHz receiver optical sub-assembly （ROSA） consisting of an 8-channel arrayed waveguide grating （AWG） and an 8-channel PIN photodetector （PD） array is designed and fabricated based on silica hybrid integration technology. Multimode output waveguides in the silica AWG with 2% refractive index difference are used to obtain fiat-top spectra. The output waveguide facet is polished to 45° bevel to change the light propagation direction into the mesa-type PIN PD, which simplifies the packaging process. The experimentM results show that the single channel I dB bandwidth of AWG ranges from 2.12nm to 3.06nm, the ROSA responsivity ranges from 0.097 A/W to 0.158A/W, and the 3dB bandwidth is up to 11 GHz. It is promising to be applied in the eight-lane WDM transmission system in data center interconnection.

Software-Defined Optical Data Centre Networks

Based on the analysis of data centre(DC) traffic pattern, we introduced a holistic software-defined optical DC solution. Architecture-on-Demand based hybrid optical switched(OPS/OCS) data centre network(DCN) fabric is introduced, which is able to realise different inter-and intra-cluster configurations and dynamically support diverse traffic in the DC. The optical DCN is controlled and managed by a software-defined networking(SDN) enabled control plane to achieve high programmability. Moreover, virtual data centre(VDC) composition is developed as an application of such softwaredefined optical DC to create VDC slices for different tenants.

3D automatic segmentation method for retinal optical coherence tomography volume data using boundary surface enhancement

With the introduction of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography(SD-OCT),much larger image datasets are routinely acquired compared to what was possible using the previous generation of time-domain OCT.Thus,there is a critical need for the development of three-dimensional(3D)segmentation methods for processing these data.We present here a novel 3D automatic segmentation method for retinal OCT volume data.Brie°y,to segment a boundary surface,two OCT volume datasets are obtained by using a 3D smoothingfilter and a 3D differentialfilter.Their linear combination is then calculated to generate new volume data with an enhanced boundary surface,where pixel intensity,boundary position information,and intensity changes on both sides of the boundary surface are used simultaneously.Next,preliminary discrete boundary points are detected from the A-Scans of the volume data.Finally,surface smoothness constraints and a dynamic threshold are applied to obtain a smoothed boundary surface by correcting a small number of error points.Our method can extract retinal layer boundary surfaces sequentially with a decreasing search region of volume data.We performed automatic segmentation on eight human OCT volume datasets acquired from a commercial Spectralis OCT system,where each volume of datasets contains 97 OCT B-Scan images with a resolution of 496
512(each B-Scan comprising 512 A-Scans containing 496 pixels);experimental results show that this method can accurately segment seven layer boundary surfaces in normal as well as some abnormal eyes.

Applications of Satellite Data for Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) Retrievals and Validation with AERONET Data

An understanding of the amount and type of aerosols present in the atmosphere is required for the atmospheric correction of satellite imagery. A sensitivity analysis of the atmospheric inputs to the MOD09 software has shown that uncertainty in the estimation of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) has the greatest impact on the accuracy of atmospheric correction of MODIS data. The MOD09 software used for the generation of surface reflectance products estimates the AOD of the atmosphere at the time of image acquisition. AOD measurements retrieved from MODIS were compared with near-simultaneous AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) data over three sites in Australia, using time-series of MODIS surface reflectance products. The results of the study provide an important independent validation of ACRES MODIS Surface Reflectance Products. This procedure may be applied to long time series MODIS data for estimating the accuracy of MOD09 retrieved AOD.

Classification of vegetative types in Changbai Mountain based on optical and microwave remote sensing data

Highly accurate vegetative type distribution information is of great significance for forestry resource monitoring and management.In order to improve the classification accuracy of forest types,Sentinel-1 and 2 data of Changbai Mountain protection development zone were selected,and combined with DEM to construct a multi-featured random forest type classification model incorporating fusing intensity,texture,spectral,vegetation index and topography information and using random forest Gini index(GI)for optimization.The overall accuracy of classification was 94.60%and the Kappa coefficient was 0.933.Comparing the classification results before and after feature optimization,it shows that feature optimization has a greater impact on the classification accuracy.Comparing the classification results of random forest,maximum likelihood method and CART decision tree under the same conditions,it shows that the random forest has a higher performance and can be applied to forestry research work such as forest resource survey and monitoring.

Switched-mode AGC circuits with internally created reset module for burst-mode unbalanced data optical receiver

This paper presents an innovative switched-mode auto gain control （AGC） circuit with internally created reset module for DC-10Mb/s burst-mode unbalanced （BMU） optical data transmission. Conventional AGC circuit is inappropriate for BMU data transmission because it is based on average level detection and requires considerable time to settle on a predefined gain. Therefore, we adopt a fast switched-mode AGC based on peak level detection. After the gain is adjusted, the peak level detectors need to re-detect the peak level of the input signal. Thus, we develop an internally created reset module. This AGC with reset module exhibits a fast operation and achieves an adjusted stable gain within one-bit, avoiding any bit loss up to 10Mb/s data rate. During power-up, the peak level detectors possibly hold an uncertain level resulting in the bit-errors. We propose a power-up reset circuit to solve this problem. Designed in a 0.5μm CMOS technology, the circuit achieves an optical sensitivity of better than -30dBm and a wide dynamic range of over 30dB with a power dissipation of only 30 mW from a 5V supply.

Optical-Elevation Data Co-Registration and Classification-Based Height Normalization for Building Detection in Stereo VHR Images

Building detection in very high resolution (VHR) images is crucial for mapping and analysing urban environments. Since buildings are elevated objects, elevation data need to be integrated with images for reliable detection. This process requires two critical steps: optical-elevation data co-registration and aboveground elevation calculation. These two steps are still challenging to some extent. Therefore, this paper introduces optical-elevation data co-registration and normalization techniques for generating a dataset that facilitates elevation-based building detection. For achieving accurate co-registration, a dense set of stereo-based elevations is generated and co-registered to their relevant image based on their corresponding image locations. To normalize these co-registered elevations, the bare-earth elevations are detected based on classification information of some terrain-level features after achieving the image co-registration. The developed method was executed and validated. After implementation, 80% overall-quality of detection result was achieved with 94% correct detection. Together, the developed techniques successfully facilitate the incorporation of stereo-based elevations for detecting buildings in VHR remote sensing images.

Modeling for Ethernet passive optical network receiver

A behavior model for the receiver of the Ethernet passive optical network（EPON） is presented. The model consists of a fiber, a photodetector, a transimpedance amplifier （TIA） followed by a limiting amplifier and a clock and data recovery＇ circuit （CDR）. Each sub-model is constructed based on the architecture of a circuit. The noise and jitter in each block such as shot noise, thermal noise, deterministic and random jitter are also considered. The performance of the whole receiver can be evaluated by the simulation of the behavior model, which is faster than the ordinary circuit model and more accurate than the analytical model. The whole model is implemented with C ＋＋ and simulated in Microsoft Visual C ＋＋ 6. 0. Using the Monte Carlo method, the EPON receiver is simulated. The simulation results show a good agreement with experimental ones.

Optical Image Encryption Based on Mixed Chaotic Maps and Single-Shot Digital Holography

Random phase masks play a key role in optical image encryption schemes based on double random phase technique. In this paper, a mixed chaotic method is proposed, which can efficiently solve some weaknesses that one-dimensional (1-D) single chaotic maps encounter to generate random phase masks. Based on the chaotic random phase masks, optical image encryption and decryption are realized with a single-shot digital holographic technique. In the proposed encryption scheme, the initial value and parameters of mixed chaotic maps serve as secret keys, which is convenient for the key management and transmission. Moreover, it also possesses high resistance against statistical attack, brute-force attack, noise attack and shear attack. Simulation results and security analysis verify the validity and security of the proposed encryption scheme. © 2017, Tianjin University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

A Steganography-Based Optical Image Encryption System Using RGB Channel Integration

An optical image encryption system with adaptive steganography using red, green, and blue （RGB） channel integration is proposed. The optical image encryption system employs a double random phase encoding algorithm to encrypt and decrypt color images. The RGB channel in a color image is first integrated into a large grayscale image. Then the integrated image is encrypted by two random phase masks. The secret data is then embedded into the encrypted image with a specific hiding sequence generated by the zero-LSB （least significant bits） sorting technique which is a content-dependent and low distortion data embedding method. Experimental results show that the proposed, method has a good performance in both hiding capacity and decrypted image quality.

A 26-Gb/s CMOS optical receiver with a reference-less CDR in 65-nm CMOS

This paper presents a 26-Gb/s CMOS optical receiver that is fabricated in 65-nm technology. It consists of a tripleinductive transimpedance amplifier(TIA), direct current(DC) offset cancellation circuits, 3-stage gm-TIA variable-gain amplifiers(VGA), and a reference-less clock and data recovery(CDR) circuit with built-in equalization technique. The TIA/VGA frontend measurement results demonstrate 72-dB? transimpedance gain, 20.4-GHz-3-dB bandwidth, and 12-dB DC gain tuning range. The measurements of the VGA’s resistive networks also demonstrate its efficient capability of overcoming the voltage and temperature variations. The CDR adopts a full-rate topology with 12-dB imbedded equalization tuning range. Optical measurements of this chipset achieve a 10-12 BER at 26 Gb/s for a 2;-1 PRBS input with a-7.3-dBm input sensitivity. The measurement results with a 10-dB @ 13 GHz attenuator also demonstrate the effectiveness of the gain tuning capability and the built-in equalization. The entire system consumes 140 mW from a 1/1.2-V supply.

Green indoor optical wireless communication systems:Pathway towards pervasive deployment

The Optical Wireless Communication(OWC)offers the high capacity of optical fiber communication with the flexibility of wireless communication.Since it works in the optical region of the ElectroMagnetic(EM)spectrum,it guarantees safety and security which are critical in radio and microwave frequency communication.The principal objective of this paper is to analyze the indoor OWC systems on these guaranteed features,and safety and security are jointly denoted by the term green.The high obstacle impermeability of optical signals and their directivity strengthen the security of indoor OWC data transmission.The confidentiality and authenticity of optical wireless data can also be preserved with the Quantum Key Distribution(QKD).This paper provides a technological overview and a review of literature about the OWC system that helps to identify the challenges in the path of a ubiquitous deployment of green wireless communication systems.Significant advancements in the sources and detectors are discussed together with the coding,modulation and multiplexing techniques for making highly robust OWC links.The ubiquitous deployment of green OWC necessitates the development of optical transmitters and receivers,performance enhancement techniques,incorporation of uplink and energy harvesting abilities,and safety and security enhancement techniques.Hence,a special emphasis is placed on these aspects and their challenges towards the green implementation.Furthermore,the paper explores some significant indoor applications based on the OWC that have great impacts on the Next Generation Networks(NGN)and the Internet of Things(IoT).

Principle of MSD floating-point division based on Newton-Raphson method on ternary optical computer

The division operation is not frequent relatively in traditional applications, but it is increasingly indispensable and important in many modern applications. In this paper, the implementation of modified signed-digit （MSD） floating-point division using Newton-Raphson method on the system of ternary optical computer （TOC） is studied. Since the addition of MSD floating-point is carry-free and the digit width of the system of TOC is large, it is easy to deal with the enough wide data and transform the division operation into multiplication and addition operations. And using data scan and truncation the problem of digits expansion is effectively solved in the range of error limit. The division gets the good results and the efficiency is high. The instance of MSD floating-point division shows that the method is feasible.

DESIGN OF AN AIRBORNE OPTIC FIBER DATA BUS SYSTEM

The development,application,communication protocol and system structure of an airborne data bus system are discussed in this paper with emphasis on the design of hardware, software and optical fiber transmission system of the bus controller and remote terminal. Some experiments and their results are also given in this paper.