Advances in Photonic Technologies and Cryptographic Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Optics and Lasers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2022) | Viewed by 7464

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Instituto de Telecomunicações, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: quantum cryptography; quantum effects in optical fibers; single- and entangled-photonic state generation and detection; quantum homodyne and heterodyne detection
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Instituto de Telecomunicações, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: optical communications; photonics; quantum communications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last few years, photonic technologies have experienced a number of dramatic technical advances, tackling the development of high-performance, low-footprint, and price-competitive solutions, which makes it nowadays a key enabling technology in optical networks. This research field not only embraces the classical communication systems but also enables the practical implementation of quantum cryptographic protocols over optical networks. From a classical perspective, the design and fabrication of lasers, high-speed optical modulators for high-order modulation formats, compact and fast coherent receivers, and nonlinear waveguides for phase-sensitive and -insensitive amplification are major photonic technological achievements, allowing the extensive deployment of optical networks.

Moreover, recently, quantum cryptographic systems have been using photonic technologies to boost the successful laboratory experiments in this research field to practical and real-world implementations. In practice, this comprises the integration of bulky optical components on photonic chips, allowing for the generation, manipulation, and detection of different degrees of freedom of individual photons or weak coherent states. Such capabilities require the design and fabrication of devices for quantum state generation, linear and non-linear manipulation of the light, and detection of nonclassical light on a single platform. This is a major achievement considering the integration of several different optical components into a unique chip, which leads to a considerable reduction in the insertion losses and to a unique phase stabilization when compared with bulk optical devices.

Consequently, this Special Issue aims to highlight the recent progress and trends in photonic technologies with applications in optical communications, ranging from classical to quantum domains. This issue will accept high-quality manuscripts reporting original research results and survey articles of exceptional merit, and it will present the readers of this journal with the most recent outcomes and trends in this fundamental research area.

Prof. Dr. Nuno Silva
Prof. Dr. Nelson Muga
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • optical modulation
  • self-coherent detection
  • phase-sensitive and -insensitive amplification
  • programmable photonics
  • nonlinear optics
  • silicon photonics
  • photonic integrated circuits
  • quantum photonic state generation
  • quantum detection
  • quantum key distribution
  • quantum random number generation
  • quantum effects in optical waveguides
  • quantum cryptography primitives, protocols, and algorithms
  • digital signal processing supporting coherent detection

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2044 KiB  
Article
Electrically Tunable Perfect Terahertz Absorber Using Embedded Combline Graphene Layer
by Amir Maghoul, Ali Rostami, Azeez Abdullah Barzinjy and Peyman Mirtaheri
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(22), 10961; https://doi.org/10.3390/app112210961 - 19 Nov 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1575
Abstract
Graphene is a powerful 2-D matter with the capability of extraordinary transparency, and tunable conductivity is employed in emerging optoelectronics devices. In this article, the design of an electrically tunable graphene-based perfect terahertz absorber is proposed and evaluated numerically. The introduced structure is [...] Read more.
Graphene is a powerful 2-D matter with the capability of extraordinary transparency, and tunable conductivity is employed in emerging optoelectronics devices. In this article, the design of an electrically tunable graphene-based perfect terahertz absorber is proposed and evaluated numerically. The introduced structure is composed of two graphene layers with a sharp absorption peak in the terahertz band. These graphene layers are combline and stripline separated by the insulator substrate. The position of the absorption peak is tunable on the absorption band by means of manipulation in geometric parameters of the combline graphene layer. Furthermore, the intensity and frequency of the absorption peak can be flexibly modulated by varying Fermi potential of the combline graphene layer, which can be controlled through external DC voltages without the need of changing the geometry of the structure. It is shown that the absorption band can be tuned in the bandwidth from 5 to 15 in terahertz. The findings of this paper can promote a new perspective in designing perfect ribbon absorbers based on graphene properties that can be utilized for future photodetectors, solar cells, and thermal sensors with an absorption intensity above 2 × 105(nm2) with narrow absorption bandwidth of 0.112 THz. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Photonic Technologies and Cryptographic Applications)
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10 pages, 37049 KiB  
Article
Reflectometry Study of the Pyroelectric Effect on Proton-Exchange Channel Waveguides in Lithium Niobate
by Roman Ponomarev, Yuri Konstantinov, Maxim Belokrylov, Ivan Lobach and Denis Shevtsov
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(21), 9853; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11219853 - 21 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1952
Abstract
This work is devoted to the study of the pyroelectric effect on the properties of optical waveguides formed in a lithium niobate crystal by proton exchange. In the present work, we studied the cessation effect of the radiation channeling during thermocycling of Y-splitters [...] Read more.
This work is devoted to the study of the pyroelectric effect on the properties of optical waveguides formed in a lithium niobate crystal by proton exchange. In the present work, we studied the cessation effect of the radiation channeling during thermocycling of Y-splitters samples. We examined the spectral dependence of optical losses on the wavelength using an optical spectrum analyzer. The results demonstrate that in the range of 1530–1570 nm, all wavelengths are suppressed equally. The optical frequency domain reflectometry shows that the increase of optical losses is observed along the entire waveguide, but not only at the Y-splitting point, as supposed earlier. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Photonic Technologies and Cryptographic Applications)
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16 pages, 844 KiB  
Article
Characterization of a Quantum Random Number Generator Based on Vacuum Fluctuations
by Maurício J. Ferreira, Nuno A. Silva, Armando N. Pinto and Nelson J. Muga
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(16), 7413; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11167413 - 12 Aug 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2848
Abstract
Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) are currently in high demand across a large number of cryptographic applications as secure sources of true randomness. In this work, we characterize the conditions from which randomness can be extracted in a QRNG based on homodyne measurements [...] Read more.
Quantum random number generators (QRNGs) are currently in high demand across a large number of cryptographic applications as secure sources of true randomness. In this work, we characterize the conditions from which randomness can be extracted in a QRNG based on homodyne measurements of vacuum fluctuations by assessing the impact of experimental limitations, such as the digitizer resolution or the presence of excess local oscillator (LO) noise due to an unbalanced detection. Moreover, we propose an estimation method to quantify the excess entropy contribution introduced by an unbalanced detection and analyze the implementation of the post-processing algorithm. Finally, we submitted the generated numbers to a set of statistical tests to assess the quality of its output randomness and verified that it passes the standard libraries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Photonic Technologies and Cryptographic Applications)
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