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Driven dynamics and rotary echo of a qubit tunably coupled to a harmonic oscillator

Summary

We have investigated the driven dynamics of a superconducting flux qubit that is tunably coupled to a microwave resonator. We find that the qubit experiences an oscillating field mediated by off-resonant driving of the resonator, leading to strong modifications of the qubit Rabi frequency. This opens an additional noise channel, and we find that low-frequency noise in the coupling parameter causes a reduction of the coherence time during driven evolution. The noise can be mitigated with the rotary-echo pulse sequence, which, for driven systems, is analogous to the Hahn-echo sequence.
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Summary

We have investigated the driven dynamics of a superconducting flux qubit that is tunably coupled to a microwave resonator. We find that the qubit experiences an oscillating field mediated by off-resonant driving of the resonator, leading to strong modifications of the qubit Rabi frequency. This opens an additional noise channel...

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Readout circuitry for continuous high-rate photon detection with arrays of InP Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes

Summary

An asynchronous readout integrated circuit (ROIC) has been developed for hybridization to a 32x32 array of single-photon sensitive avalanche photodiodes (APDs). The asynchronous ROIC is capable of simultaneous detection and readout of photon times of arrival, with no array blind time. Each pixel in the array is independently operated by a finite state machine that actively quenches an APD upon a photon detection event, and re-biases the device into Geiger mode after a programmable hold-off time. While an individual APD is in hold-off mode, other elements in the array are biased and available to detect photons. This approach enables high pixel refresh frequency (PRF), making the device suitable for applications including optical communications and frequency-agile ladar. A built-in electronic shutter that de-biases the whole array allows the detector to operate in a gated mode or allows for detection to be temporarily disabled. On-chip data reduction reduces the high bandwidth requirements of simultaneous detection and readout. Additional features include programmable single-pixel disable, region of interest processing, and programmable output data rates. State-based on-chip clock gating reduces overall power draw. ROIC operation has been demonstrated with hybridized InP APDs sensitive to 1.06-Mm and 1.55-Mm wavelength, and fully packaged focal plane arrays (FPAs) have been assembled and characterized.
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Summary

An asynchronous readout integrated circuit (ROIC) has been developed for hybridization to a 32x32 array of single-photon sensitive avalanche photodiodes (APDs). The asynchronous ROIC is capable of simultaneous detection and readout of photon times of arrival, with no array blind time. Each pixel in the array is independently operated by...

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External cavity beam combining of 21 semiconductor lasers using SPGD

Published in:
Appl. Opt., Vol. 51, No. 11, 10 April 2012, pp. 1724-1728.

Summary

Active coherent beam combining of laser oscillators is an attractive way to achieve high output power in a diffraction limited beam. Here we describe an active beam combining system used to coherently combine 21 semiconductor laser elements with an 81% beam combining efficiency in an external cavity configuration compared with an upper limit of 90% efficiency in the particular configuration of the experiment. Our beam combining system utilizes a stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm for active phase control. This work demonstrates that active beam combining is not subject to the scaling limits imposed on passive-phasing systems.
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Summary

Active coherent beam combining of laser oscillators is an attractive way to achieve high output power in a diffraction limited beam. Here we describe an active beam combining system used to coherently combine 21 semiconductor laser elements with an 81% beam combining efficiency in an external cavity configuration compared with...

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Design and analysis of a hyperspectral microwave receiver subsystem

Published in:
MICRORAD 2012, 12th Specialist Meeting on Microwave Radiometry and Remote Sensing of the Environment, 5-9 March 2012.

Summary

Recent technology advances have profoundly changed the landscape of modern radiometry by enabling miniaturized, low-power, and low-noise radio-frequency receivers operating at frequencies near 200 GHz and beyond. These advances enable the practical use of receiver arrays to multiplex multiple broad frequency bands into many spectral channels. We use the term "hyperspectral microwave" to refer generically to microwave sounding systems with approximately 50 spectral channels or more. In this paper, we report on the design and analysis of the receiver subsystem (lensed antenna, RF frontend electronics, and IF processor module) for the Hyperspectral Microwave Atmospheric Sounder (HyMAS) comprising multiple receivers near the oxygen absorption line at 118.75 GHz and the water vapor absorption line at 183.31 GHz. The hyperspectral microwave receiver system will be integrated into a new scanhead compatible with the NASA GSFC Conical Scanning Microwave Imaging Radiometer/Compact Submillimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (CoSMIR/CoSSIR) airborne instrument system to facilitate demonstration and performance characterization under funding from the NASA ESTO Advanced Component Technology program. Four identical radiometers will be used to cover 108-119 GHz, and two identical receivers will be used to cover 173-183 GHz. Subharmonic mixers will be driven by frequency-multiplied dielectric resonant oscillators, and single-sideband operation will be achieved by waveguide filtering of the lower sideband. A relatively high IF frequency is chosen to facilitate miniaturization of the IF processor module, which will be fabricated using Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) technology. Corrugated feed antennas with lenses are used to achieve a FWHM beamwidth of approximately 3.5 degrees. Two polarizations are measured by each feed to increase overall channel count, and multiple options will be considered during the design phase for the polarization diplexing approach. Broadband operation over a relatively high intermediate frequency range (18-29 GHz) is a technical challenge of the front-end receiver systems, and a receiver temperature of approximately 2000-3000K is expected over the receiver bandwidth. This performance, together with approximately l00-msec integration times typical of airborne operation, yields channel NEDTs of approximately 0.35K, which is adequate to demonstrate the hyperspectral microwave concept by comparing profile retrievals with high-fidelity ground truth available either by coincident overpasses of hyperspectral infrared sounders and/or in situ radiosonde/dropsonde measurements.
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Summary

Recent technology advances have profoundly changed the landscape of modern radiometry by enabling miniaturized, low-power, and low-noise radio-frequency receivers operating at frequencies near 200 GHz and beyond. These advances enable the practical use of receiver arrays to multiplex multiple broad frequency bands into many spectral channels. We use the term...

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Photonic ADC: overcoming the bottleneck of electronic jitter

Summary

Accurate conversion of wideband multi-GHz analog signals into the digital domain has long been a target of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) developers, driven by applications in radar systems, software radio, medical imaging, and communication systems. Aperture jitter has been a major bottleneck on the way towards higher speeds and better accuracy. Photonic ADCs, which perform sampling using ultra-stable optical pulse trains generated by mode-locked lasers, have been investigated for many years as a promising approach to overcome the jitter problem and bring ADC performance to new levels. This work demonstrates that the photonic approach can deliver on its promise by digitizing a 41 GHz signal with 7.0 effective bits using a photonic ADC built from discrete components. This accuracy corresponds to a timing jitter of 15 fs - a 4-5 times improvement over the performance of the best electronic ADCs which exist today. On the way towards an integrated photonic ADC, a silicon photonic chip with core photonic components was fabricated and used to digitize a 10 GHz signal with 3.5 effective bits. In these experiments, two wavelength channels were implemented, providing the overall sampling rate of 2.1 GSa/s. To show that photonic ADCs with larger channel counts are possible, a dual 20- channel silicon filter bank has been demonstrated.
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Summary

Accurate conversion of wideband multi-GHz analog signals into the digital domain has long been a target of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) developers, driven by applications in radar systems, software radio, medical imaging, and communication systems. Aperture jitter has been a major bottleneck on the way towards higher speeds and better accuracy...

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Diffractive beam combining of a 2.5-kW fiber laser array

Published in:
ASSP 2012, Advanced Solid-State Photonics, 29 January - 1 February 2012.

Summary

Five 500-W fiber amplifiers were coherently combined with 79% efficiency using a diffractive optical element (DOE) combiner, generating a single beam whose M^2 = 1.1 beam quality exceeded that of the inputs.
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Summary

Five 500-W fiber amplifiers were coherently combined with 79% efficiency using a diffractive optical element (DOE) combiner, generating a single beam whose M^2 = 1.1 beam quality exceeded that of the inputs.

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Retroreflectors for remote readout of colorimetric sensors

Published in:
Sensors and Actuators B-Chemical, Vol. 160, No. 1, 15 December 2011, pp. 1244-1249.

Summary

We have developed a remote detection system consisting of commercially available retroreflective material coated with an analyte-specific colorimetric dye. Quantitative performance modeling predicts that, given the appropriate indicator dye, a system with a 10 cm optic and eye-safe illumination should be capable of detecting small droplets of contamination at kilometer ranges. We have synthesized new colorimetric dyes specific to organophosphate contamination and, with these dyes, demonstrated detection of 1um of liquid malathion at over 150 m with less than 20 mW of laser illumination.
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Summary

We have developed a remote detection system consisting of commercially available retroreflective material coated with an analyte-specific colorimetric dye. Quantitative performance modeling predicts that, given the appropriate indicator dye, a system with a 10 cm optic and eye-safe illumination should be capable of detecting small droplets of contamination at kilometer...

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Radiation effects in 3D integrated SOI SRAM circuits

Summary

Radiation effects are presented for the first time for vertically integrated 3 x 64 -kb SOI SRAM circuits fabricated using the 3D process developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Three fully-fabricated 2D circuit wafers are stacked using standard CMOS fabrication techniques including thin-film planarization, layer alignment and oxide bonding. Micron-scale dense 3D vias are fabricated to interconnect circuits between tiers. Ionizing dose and single event effects are discussed for proton irradiation with energies between 4.8 and 500 MeV. Results are compared with 14-MeV neutron irradiation. Single event upset cross section, tier-to-tier and angular effects are discussed. The interaction of 500-MeV protons with tungsten interconnects is investigated usingMonte-Carlo simulations. Results show no tier-to-tier effects and comparable radiation effects on 2D and 3D SRAMs. 3DIC technology should be a good candidate for fabricating circuits for space applications.
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Summary

Radiation effects are presented for the first time for vertically integrated 3 x 64 -kb SOI SRAM circuits fabricated using the 3D process developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Three fully-fabricated 2D circuit wafers are stacked using standard CMOS fabrication techniques including thin-film planarization, layer alignment and oxide bonding. Micron-scale dense...

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SET characterization in logic circuits fabricated in a 3DIC technology

Summary

Single event transients are characterized for the first time in logic gate circuits fabricated in a novel 3DIC technology where SET test circuits are vertically integrated on three tiers in a 20-um-thick layer. This 3D technology is extremely will suited for high-density circuit integration because of the small dimension the tier-to-tier circuit interconnects, which are 1.25-um-wide-through-oxide-vias. Transient pulse width distributions were characterized simultaneously on each tier during exposure to krypton heavy ions. The difference in SET pulse width and cross-section among the three tiers is discussed. Experimental test results are explaine dby considering the electrical characteristics of the FETs on the 2D wafers before 3D integration, and by considering the energy deposited by the Kr ions passing through the various material laters of the 3DIC stack. We also show that the backmetal layer available on the upper tiers can be used to tune independently the nFET and pFET current drive, and change the SET pulse width and cross-section. This 3DIC technology appears to be a good candidate for space applications.
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Summary

Single event transients are characterized for the first time in logic gate circuits fabricated in a novel 3DIC technology where SET test circuits are vertically integrated on three tiers in a 20-um-thick layer. This 3D technology is extremely will suited for high-density circuit integration because of the small dimension the...

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High-power, low-noise 1.5-um slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) emitters: physics, devices, and applications

Summary

We review the development of a new class of high-power, edge-emitting, semiconductor optical gain medium based on the slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) concept. We restrict the scope to InP-based devices incorporating either InGaAsP or InGaAlAs quantum-well active regions and operating in the 1.5-μm-wavelength region. Key properties of the SCOW gain medium include large transverse optical mode dimensions (>;5 × 5 μm), ultralow optical confinement factor (Γ ~ 0.25-1%), and small internal loss coefficient (α i ~ 0.5 cm-1). These properties have enabled the realization of 1) packaged Watt-class semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) having low-noise figure (4-5 dB), 2) monolithic passively mode-locked lasers generating 0.25-W average output power, 3) external-cavity fiber-ring actively mode-locked lasers exhibiting residual timing jitter of
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Summary

We review the development of a new class of high-power, edge-emitting, semiconductor optical gain medium based on the slab-coupled optical waveguide (SCOW) concept. We restrict the scope to InP-based devices incorporating either InGaAsP or InGaAlAs quantum-well active regions and operating in the 1.5-μm-wavelength region. Key properties of the SCOW gain...

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