Abstract
The generation of ultra-wideband (UWB), high-frequency waveforms based on nonlinear propagation of pulses in optical fibers is reported. Self-phase modulation and subsequent optical filtering are used to implement all-optical edge detectors, which generate two temporally-narrowed replicas of each input pulse. The shapes of the narrowed pulses are subtracted from that of the original one in a balanced differential detector, providing a UWB waveform. The use of multiple replicas and nonlinear propagation allows for the generation of higher-order pulse shapes, beyond those of a Gaussian monocycle or doublet. The output pulse shape is reconfigurable through adjusting the input power and detuning the optical filters. The central radio-frequency of the generated waveforms is as high as 34 GHz, with a fractional bandwidth of 70%.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 5415533 |
| Pages (from-to) | 2207-2212 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Journal of Lightwave Technology |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 16 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2010 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Manuscript received November 01, 2009; revised January 13, 2010, February 01, 2010; accepted February 02, 2010. Date of publication February 17, 2010; date of current version July 26, 2010. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) ERC CIAN. The work of A. Zadok was supported in part by a post-doctoral fellowship from the Center for the Physics of Information (CPI), California Institute of Technology.
Keywords
- Microwave photonics
- nonlinear fiber-optics
- optical signal processing
- ultra-wideband pulse generation