We demonstrate a temporal cloak with the capability to simultaneously hide and transmit optical data, as well as prevent corruption by an interfering event. Our results significantly expand the potential of time cloaking in telecommunications.
Recent research on time cloaking has revealed a fascinating approach to hide temporal events from an interrogating optical field, by opening up and subsequently closing intensity gaps in a probe beam. Experiments thus far have demonstrated temporal cloaking of nonlinear interactions and high-speed optical data. Here we report a temporal cloak with the new capability not only to hide optical data, but also to concurrently transmit it along another wavelength channel for subsequent readout, masking the information from one observer while directing it to another. Additionally, the cloak succeeds in passing modulated data unscathed through a scrambling event, providing a new form of tampering resistance. Both examples launch a paradigm shift in temporal cloaking: instead of using time cloaks primarily to disrupt communication, we show how they can also improve data transmission, in turn greatly widening the range of possible applications in telecommunications.
Recent research has revealed a significant ability to manipulate and control a light beam to hide events in time-domain. Achieving highly functional temporal cloaking, which open up and subsequently close intensity gaps in the probe beam to conceal events from the observer with satisfied performances, are still difficult in optical fiber communication. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a temporal cloak system based on ultra-short-pulse generation and time-domain fraunhofer diffraction. We succeed in hiding 83 percent of the whole time axis and cloak pseudorandom dark return-to-zero data bitrate at 10 Gbit/s. The four states of temporal cloaking and condition of cloaking off have been investigated in this paper.
Erasing the past is now easier thanks to the latest time cloak, which conceals events instead of objects. The device can't cloak large-scale events such as a bank robbery but it can hide data flowing through an optical fibre, which could allow secret messages to be sent without a trace. Time cloaks work by slowing down light in an optical fibre, creating a gap in the beam. Any outside light that enters the hole becomes cloaked when the original beam is sped up. It's as if the original beam has been stitched back together like a spliced movie, hiding any record that the extra scene ever happened