Abstract
We demonstrate a new approach of photonically assisted radio-frequency (RF) waveform generation using a spectrally incoherent light source. The system is based on the so-called generalized frequency-to-time mapping operation. In this work, external modulation of the source is done by concatenating two electro-optic Mach-Zehnder modulators properly biased to achieve short pulse gates which allow for broad bandwidth electrical signals. Also, the spectral shaping stage is performed prior to O/E conversion. A detailed theoretical analysis demonstrates that even in this case the frequency-to-time mapping is preserved. The key is that the noise level is greatly reduced because the amplitude filter serves as noise rejecter. Experimental results show up to approximately 20 GHz electrical bandwidth signals using 10 Gb/s standard telecommunication equipment with the nice feature of repetition rate control on the generated electrical waveform.
Highlights
The generation of arbitrary electromagnetic signals with 1-50 GHz frequency content is a current challenge for purely electronic systems
We demonstrate a new approach of photonically assisted radiofrequency (RF) waveform generation using a spectrally incoherent light source
The system is based on the so-called generalized frequency-to-time mapping operation
Summary
The generation of arbitrary electromagnetic signals with 1-50 GHz frequency content is a current challenge for purely electronic systems. There exist many solutions for photonically assisted AWGs [2], but those relying on spatial light modulator (SLM)–based pulse shaping offer a better performance in terms of reconfigurability [3,4,5,6,7]. Among these solutions, the wavelength-to-time mapping technique [4] has the potential for a broader range of operation because it can achieve the low-frequency regime of RF bandwidth. A physical interpretation of this phenomenon can be done in terms of the space-time analogy, since it is the temporal equivalent of the Fraunhofer (or farfield) diffraction [8]
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