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Optica

Temporal cloaking for data suppression and retrieval

Joseph M. Lukens, Andrew J. Metcalf, Daniel E. Leaird, Andrew M. Weiner

Published Nov 24, 2014• 37 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1364/optica.1.000372

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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.
The pursuit of invisibility cloaks has long been a central theme in science fiction literature. One approach involves altering the waveform transmitted to the observer in the spatial domain, represented by meta-materials. Another approach is to open a window in the time domain. Specifically, researchers for the first time opened a single or periodic time gap in the probe light sent to the observer, thereby hiding an event within this time gap [Nature481, 62 (2012)10.1038/nature10695]. However, the absence of an optical carrier in the opened window prevented the recovery of the hidden event even for the cooperator. Now, we have demonstrated a novel temporal cloak that can recover hidden events. In this temporal cloak, the opening and closing of time gaps are achieved through the precise manipulation of photon density and phase synchronization in the injection-locked laser. During the process, the inevitable spontaneous emission photons are utilized to carry the event information. The cloaking window demonstrates both flexibility and reconfigurability, with its size achieving a breakthrough extension to 2.5 µs compared with dispersion-based methods. These advancements represent a significant step towards the realization of time cloaking and have a direct impact on secure communication.
We experimentally demonstrate two innovative applications of photonic technologies previously solidified in the field of classical optical communications. In the first application, we exploit electro-optic modulator technology to develop a novel "time cloak,'' a device which hides events in time by manipulating the flow of a probing light beam. Our temporal cloak is capable of masking high-speed optical data from a receiver, greatly improving the feasibility of time cloaking and bringing such exotic concepts to the verge of practical application. In the second specialization, high-resolution Fourier-transform pulse shaping---perfected for multi-wavelength telecom networks---is applied to shape the correlations of entangled photon pairs, states which have received considerable attention in nonlocal tests of quantum theory and in quantum key distribution. Using nonlinear waveguides fabricated out of periodically poled lithium niobate, we are able to demonstrate ultrafast coincidence detection with record-high efficiency, which coupled with our pulse shaper allows us to realize for the first time several capabilities in biphoton control, including high-order dispersion cancellation, orthogonal spectral coding, correlation train generation, and tunable delay control. Each of these experiments represents an important advance in quantum state manipulation, with the potential to impact developments in quantum information. And more generally, our work introducing telecommunication technology into both temporal cloaking and biphoton control highlights the potential of such tools in more nascent outgrowths of classical and quantum optics.
A temporal cloak scheme based on tunable optical delay and advance is theoretically proposed. An input optical signal is divided into two parts, and the front part is advanced while the rear part is delayed. A temporal gap which contains negligible optical energy is opened to hide events from observers, which can be closed by doing the inverse process. Different from the previous schemes that use continuous wave light, we use an optical data stream as the probe beam. Simulations have been done to investigate performance of the temporal cloak. The developed scheme can be applied in fiber-optical signal processing and secure communications.
Considered to only exist in fairy tales in the past, invisibility cloaks have been successively converted into reality no matter in the spatial domain or the temporal domain. Inspired by the spatial cloaking, time gaps are utilized to hide temporal events. However, a sophisticated synchronization for cloaking is indispensable in these cloaking techniques, therefore leaving inconvenience for the realization of the temporal cloak. Here, by exploiting the temporal Talbot effect, we propose a brand new scheme and concept to achieve a temporal cloak without any synchronization for the cloaking process, under which the intensity-modulated event is directly turned into invisibility in intensity through temporal averaging effect induced by the Talbot effect. We successfully realize the temporal cloak for periodic and pseudo-random signals. We also find that the higher order temporal Talbot effect is beneficial to the cloaking performance. Due to the transformed information on the phase, the data could be recovered from the intensity-cloaked waveform, leading to a non-full-field cloak. This method and its concept render a distinct perspective for the temporal cloak, extend temporal cloak to the pulsed-wave, and promote the development of confidential communication.