Experimental and Digital Practices in Photonics and Microwaves

This module consists entirely of practical work and covers experimental and digital practices in photonics at both the component and system levels, as well as simulations of photonic systems and microwave components using professional software.

The aim is to provide students with experimental and digital skills relating to photonic components and systems and microwave components. Students will thus be able to develop experimental and metrological expertise and will be able to use commercial software to simulate the behavior of specific components or systems.

Knowledge of physical principles and components in photonics and microwave frequencies.

Recommended prerequisites:

Knowledge of Matlab or equivalent software.

Practical exam (100%)

Practical work in photonics (mainly experimental)

1. Fiber optic gyroscope
2. Spectral characterization of lasers using the (auto)-heterodyne method
3. Gas Detection & Identification
4. Fiber optic amplifier: numerical study
5. Fiber amplifier: experimental study
6. Fiber optic laser

Simulation of telecom components & systems

1. Evanescent field coupler, multimode interferometer, and Mach-Zehnder.
2. Diffraction grating, dispersion compensation, and phase-shifting grating.
3. Passive optical network, time division multiplexing, and packet compression.
4. Wavelength multiplexing, insertion/extraction, and nonlinear effects.

Simulation of microwave components

1. Designing a low-noise amplifier using ADS software (Keysight)
2. Study of microwave oscillators using ADS
3. Study of passive components using electromagnetic simulation

Practical work: 42 hours