Compact Optical Module of Homodyne Detection

Homodyne detection is a detection technique that significantly amplifies optical signals. It is useful for the readout of multilayer optical discs, where the signal level is quite low. The improvement of optical disc readout signal quality by homodyne detection has been demonstrated experimentally....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJapanese Journal of Applied Physics Vol. 51; no. 8; pp. 08JA01 - 08JA01-4
Main Authors Mikami, Hideharu, Kurokawa, Takahiro, Watanabe, Koichi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published The Japan Society of Applied Physics 01.08.2012
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Summary:Homodyne detection is a detection technique that significantly amplifies optical signals. It is useful for the readout of multilayer optical discs, where the signal level is quite low. The improvement of optical disc readout signal quality by homodyne detection has been demonstrated experimentally. However, homodyne detection requires a complicated optical system, which causes large-scale implementation and high cost, which prevents practical use of the technique in optical disc systems. In this report, we demonstrated compact implementation of homodyne detection. We proposed and assembled two types of optical module for homodyne detection. The sizes of the modules were $10\times 30$ and $10\times 40$ mm 2 , which were comparable to that of the current optical pickup. Jitter of the attenuated Blu-ray Disc™ recordable (BD-R) readout signals was improved from 15 to 7.8% by applying one of the modules.
Bibliography:(a) Conventional optical system of homodyne detection. (b) Schematic of the first proposed configuration of homodyne detection. (c) Schematic of the second proposed configuration of homodyne detection; PBS: polarization beam splitter; HBS: half beam splitter; HWP: half-wave plate; QWP: quarter-wave plate. (a) Drawing of designed grating-type module and (b) overview of assembled module (without a detector); NPG: nonpolarizing grating; HWP: half-wave plate. (a) Drawing of designed beam displacer-type module and (b) overview of assembled module (without a detector); HWP: half-wave plate. Observed interference signals: (a) grating-type module and (b) beam displacer-type module. Phase deviation vs tilt angle of (a) phase plate in the grating-type module and (b) second half-wave plate in the beam displacer-type module. Eye patterns observed by (a) conventional detection (jitter: 15%) and (b) the assembled (grating-type) module (jitter: 7.8%).
ISSN:0021-4922
1347-4065
DOI:10.1143/JJAP.51.08JA01