Photonic Reservoir Computer with Output Expansion for Unsupervized Parameter Drift Compensation.

We present a method to improve the performance of a reservoir computer by keeping the reservoir fixed and increasing the number of output neurons. The additional neurons are nonlinear functions, typically chosen randomly, of the reservoir neurons. We demonstrate the interest of this expanded output layer on an experimental opto-electronic system subject to slow parameter drift which results in loss of performance.

Space division multiplexing in standard multi-mode optical fibers based on speckle pattern classification.

In optical communications the transmission bandwidth of single mode optical fibers is almost fully exploited. To further increase the capacity of a telecommunication link, multiplexing techniques can be applied across 5 physical dimensions: amplitude, quadrature, polarization, frequency and space, with all but the latter being nearly exhausted. We experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of an original space division multiplexing technique based on the classification of speckle patterns measured at the fiber's output.

Using a reservoir computer to learn chaotic attractors, with applications to chaos synchronization and cryptography.

Using the machine learning approach known as reservoir computing, it is possible to train one dynamical system to emulate another. We show that such trained reservoir computers reproduce the properties of the attractor of the chaotic system sufficiently well to exhibit chaos synchronization. That is, the trained reservoir computer, weakly driven by the chaotic system, will synchronize with the chaotic system.

Speckle reduction in laser projection using microlens-array screens.

We report on a novel speckle reduction scheme using microlens arrays as screen material for application in laser-based projection systems. The scheme is based on properly adjusting the coherence properties on the screen: when the coherence area on the microlens-array screen is smaller than the microlens footprint, there is no interference between the fields emitted by the different microlenses and as a result no speckle is formed. We measured and modelled the speckle properties of microlens arrays with regular and irregular structure and lens sizes, and also a paper screen for comparison.