Tunable Bandwidth Research Articles

On-Chip Photonic Generation of Tunable Wideband Phase-Coded Linearly-Chirped Microwave Waveforms

On-chip photonic generation of tunable wideband phase-coded linearly-chirped microwave waveforms (PC-LCMWs) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The on-chip generation system consists of two main parts. One part is a hybrid Fourier-domain mode-locked opto-electronic oscillator (FDML-OEO) for a wideband linearly-chirped microwave waveform (LCMW) generation; the other part is a high-speed microwave photonic phase shifter (MPPS) to perform the phase-coding. By synchronizing the two parts, a PC-LCMW is finally generated. In the proposed chip, a thermally-tunable ultrahigh-Q micro-ring resonator (MRR) is a key component which is incorporated in the FDML-OEO loop to select the oscillation frequency, and an electrically-tunable micro-disk resonator (MDR), as another key component, is used to code the phase of the generated microwave signal while maintaining the amplitude by controlling the free carrier concentration in the lateral PN junction of the disk. With the use of the two key component chips, an experiment is performed and different PC-LCMWs are generated with a tunable center frequency from 12 to 16 GHz, a bandwidth from 2 to 6 GHz, and phase code of 7-bit and 13-bit Barker code. In particular, a PC-LCMW with a maximum bandwidth as wide as 6 GHz and an ultra-large time-bandwidth product (TBWP) as large as 1.96×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sup> is experimentally demonstrated. The proposed integrated PC-LCMW generation system holds great advantages including ultracompact configuration and fast tunability, which holds a high potential for applications in modern high-resolution multi-functional radar system.

Low Error and Broadband Microwave Frequency Measurement Using a Silicon Mach–Zehnder Interferometer Coupled Ring Array

The integrated photonic technologies benefit from an improved frequency measurement range with compact size relative to the radio frequency counterparts. Nevertheless, the measurement methods are generally limited by a basic trade-off between the measurement range and accuracy. In this work, we break the above limitations and trade-off based on a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) coupled ring array and a two-step measurement method. The experimental results show that a wide measurement range of 40 GHz and an ultra-low error of 9 MHz could be obtained. Moreover, owing to the ring flexibly tunable bandwidth and resonant wavelength, the measurement range and accuracy could be significantly adjusted. Another frequency measurement range of 20 GHz with a lower error of 4 MHz is also demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, among the silicon-based measurement schemes, it is a record estimation error with such a wide range. With the dominant advantages of CMOS-compatibility, a broad measurement range, ultra-low estimation errors and adjustable measurement performance, the proposed microwave measurement scheme has many important applications in on-chip microwave systems.

Silicon-on-Insulator-Based Narrowband Microwave Photonic Filter With Widely Tunable Bandwidth

Silicon-on-Insulator-Based Narrowband Microwave Photonic Filter With Widely Tunable Bandwidth

Ultra-Wideband Tunable Microwave Photonic Filter Based on Thin Film Lithium Niobate

In signal processing of the growing semaphore, a microwave photonic filter (MPF) is capable of dealing with high-frequency signals, offering the advantages of high bandwidth, easy tuning, and more. This paper presents an efficient tunable microwave photonic filter that features a wideband tuning capability and narrow-band filtering effect based on the lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) material platform. A multi-mode waveguide race-track type microring resonator has been designed, along with a thermal electrode that utilizes the thermo-optical effect of lithium niobate to adjust the microring resonator. The packaged device has been tested, with a wideband tunable range of 4.7~38.2 GHz achieved. This allows for cross-band continuous tuning across the C-band to Ka-band range. When supplied with 29.1 mW of electric power, the thermal tuning efficiency reaches 9.2 pm/mW, enabling high-frequency tuning of up to 38.2 GHz. The filter possesses a high resolution, exhibiting a 3 dB bandwidth of 662 MHz.

Benefits of FIR-based spectral proper orthogonal decomposition in separation of flow dynamics in the wake of a cantilevered square cylinder

A comparative analysis is presented to illustrate the benefits of finite impulse response (FIR)-based spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) over traditional proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) in separating coherent contributions within narrow spectral bandwidth. The wake of a cantilevered square cylinder of height-to-width ratio h/d=4 protruding a thin laminar boundary layer (δ/d=0.21) is investigated at a Reynolds number (Re) of 10600 using time-resolved stereoscopic particle image velocimetry. In the vicinity of the obstacle-plate junction region (z<0.5d), spectral analysis of the temporal modes obtained with both POD and FIR-based SPOD show fluctuation energy concentration centered on the vortex shedding frequency (fs), as well as weaker contributions at 0.1, 0.4, 0.9, 0.95, 1.05, 1.1, and 2fs. Broad-band spectral energy concentrations around 0.4fs are mainly observed close to the ground plane, while the energy contents at (1±0.05)fs and (1±0.1)fs increase at higher planes. With POD, the frequencies are not separated in the modes and it is very difficult to associate each to specific phenomena within the wake region. However, with tuning of the filter bandwidth, FIR-based SPOD represents each of the identified frequencies in a separate mode pair, which permits a better interpretation of the related dynamics. Notably, the improved modal separation assists in associating the 0.4fs spectral contribution with the interactions between the extensions of horseshoe vortex system and Kármán vortices in the wall-body junction region and the (1±0.05)fs and (1±0.1)fs frequencies to perturbation of the shedding cycle resulting from interactions with the lower frequency dynamics.

Integrated photonic RF self-interference cancellation on a silicon platform for full-duplex communication

In-band full-duplex (IBFD) technology can double the spectrum utilization efficiency for wireless communications, and increase the data transmission rate of B5G and 6G networks and satellite communications. RF self-interference is the major challenge for the application of IBFD technology, which must be resolved. Compared with the conventional electronic method, the photonic self-interference cancellation (PSIC) technique has the advantages of wide bandwidth, high amplitude and time delay tuning precision, and immunity to electromagnetic interference. Integrating the PSIC system on chip can effectively reduce the size, weight, and power consumption and meet the application requirement, especially for mobile terminals and small satellite payloads. In this paper, the silicon integrated PSIC chip is presented first and demonstrated for IBFD communication. The integrated PSIC chip comprises function units including phase modulation, time delay and amplitude tuning, sideband filtering, and photodetection, which complete the matching conditions for RF self-interference cancellation. Over the wide frequency range of C, X, Ku, and K bands, from 5 GHz to 25 GHz, a cancellation depth of more than 20 dB is achieved with the narrowest bandwidth of 140 MHz. A maximum bandwidth of 630 MHz is obtained at a center frequency of 10 GHz. The full-duplex communication experiment at Ku-band by using the PSIC chip is carried out. Cancellation depths of 24.9 dB and 26.6 dB are measured for a bandwidth of 100 MHz at central frequencies of 12.4 GHz and 14.2 GHz, respectively, and the signal of interest (SOI) with 16-quadrature amplitude modulation is recovered successfully. The factors affecting the cancellation depth and maximum interference to the SOI ratio are investigated in detail. The performances of the integrated PSIC system including link gain, noise figure, receiving sensitivity, and spurious free dynamic range are characterized.

Artificial neural network-based inverse design of metasurface absorber with tunable absorption window

Although the development of graphene broadband terahertz (THz) absorbers is relatively mature, studies focusing on modulating the absorption window remain limited. Existing research has mainly concentrated on achieving absorption window switching via the phase transition of materials like vanadium dioxide (VO2). However, this method typically allows for switching within two specific windows, lacking the capacity for arbitrary and flexible regulation. This study introduces a novel approach involving a bilayer graphene metasurface absorber (BGMA) to address this limitation, which allows arbitrary manipulation of the absorption windows. To facilitate rapid and accurate selection of the structural parameters, an artificial neural network (ANN)-based inverse design method is employed, which achieves a tunable absorption bandwidth of 6.70 THz with an error amount to 0.59%. Through in-depth mechanistic analyses, it is demonstrated that the BGMA can achieve tunable absorption between a low-frequency broadband absorption (L-FBA) mode and a high-frequency broadband absorption (H-FBA) mode. This tunability arises from the transition between graphene localized surface plasmon resonance and graphene surface plasmon resonance. Overall, the outcomes of this study underscore the remarkable tunable performance of the BGMA achieved through ANN-based inverse design. This innovation holds significant promise for applications in security detection, and object stealth.

Ultra-High Peak Rejection, Sub-Gigahertz Narrowband and Bandwidth Tunable Microwave Photonic Filter Based on Silicon Racetrack Resonators

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a notch microwave photonic filter (MPF) with optimized performance (including the sub-gigahertz narrowband, ultra-high rejection ratio and tunable bandwidth) based on two cascaded silicon Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZI) coupled microring resonators (MRRs). The MRR structure is optimized to obtain a high quality (Q) factor (corresponding to a sub-gigahertz 3dB-bandwidth), adjustable bandwidths and extinction ratios. One ring is designed as the over-coupled state with a π resonant peak phase shift while the other ring performs the under-coupled state with 0 peak phase shift. Under the intensity modulation, an extremely high MPF rejection ratio could be obtained capitalizing the complete interference cancellation technology. Moreover, the MPF bandwidth and central frequency could be flexibly tuned by adjusting the MRR bandwidths and resonant wavelengths, respectively. The experimental results demonstrate the notch MPF response with a narrow 3dB-bandwidth of 185 MHz, an extremely high rejection ratio beyond 70 dB and a 3dB-bandwidth tuning range from 185 MHz to 1.263 GHz. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to realize the silicon-based notch narrowband MPFs with the ultra-high rejection ratio (> 70 dB) and a 3dB-bandwidth tuning range from sub-gigahertz to gigahertz level. The proposed silicon-on-insulator-based MPF with competitive performance paves a way for on-chip high-quality microwave signal processing.

Selectable and stable single-frequency fiber laser with flattened power range and sub-kHz linewidth output

To achieve stable and tunable single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) wavelength output, an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) laser with two fiber ring architecture and unpumped EDF based saturable absorber (SA) is demonstrated experimentally. The acquired optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR), wavelength linewidth, output stability and power of the fiber laser over an available tuning bandwidth of 1523.0 to 1569.0 nm are also implemented. Furthermore, this EDF laser configuration also can distribute the output power uniformly in the span of 1527.0 to 1569.0 nm within 0.53 dB power difference.

Power-efficient polarization-insensitive tunable microring filter on a multi-layer Si3N4-on-SOI platform.

We develop and demonstrate a non-duplicate polarization-diversity tunable bandpass optical filter by leveraging the bi-directional transmission of add-drop dual-coupled microring resonators (MRRs) on a multi-layer Si3N4-on-silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. By using Euler-bends, we implement compact and low-loss Si3N4 MRRs with an equivalent bending radius of ∼38 µm. Fiber-to-fiber (on-chip) insertion loss of 4.3 dB (1.7 dB) with a low polarization-dependent loss of <0.5 dB and low differential group delay of <2.5 ps is achieved. The extinction ratio is more than 30 dB. The thermo-optic tuning efficiency of the Si3N4 MRRs is improved with a suspended micro-heater design. As a result, a wavelength tuning range of ∼2 nm and a 3-dB bandwidth tuning range of 20 GHz are experimentally demonstrated. The tuning efficiency is 33 pm/mW, which is ∼7.5 times higher than the previous design. This reconfigurable polarization-insensitive filter, with low loss, low cross talk, and high power efficiency, is highly promising for practical applications in optical communication and signal processing.

Design of Orthogonal Pulse Waveforms With Tunable Frequency and Bandwidth for Carrier-Free THz Communications

Carrier-free pulse-based waveforms are desired in terahertz (THz) communications since pulse-based systems have simpler transceiver architectures than carrier-based systems. For such a pulse-based THz communication system, there still lacks pulse waveforms that can support high-order modulation and flexible multiple access. In this paper, a pulse-based waveform with continuously tunable center frequencies and bandwidths is designed for carrier-free THz communications. More specifically, a Gaussian pulse is utilized as the basic pulse, and then the weighted sum of its high-order derivatives is used to generate waveforms with tunable frequencies and bandwidths according to the probability density function of Rice distribution. Such a pulse-based waveform is called frequency and bandwidth continuously tunable (FBCT) pulse. By making the derivative orders of all weighted terms odd or even, a pair of orthogonal FBCT pulses can be generated. Based on the pair of orthogonal FBCT pulses, a basic pulse-based <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">M</i> -ary quadrature amplitude modulation (P <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">M</i> QAM) scheme can be readily achieved. Moreover, with frequency and bandwidth tunability, FBCT pulse can support pulse division multiple access (PDMA) with tunable bandwidth, through which frequencies with high molecular absorption loss can be avoided. Numerical results demonstrate that FBCT pulse is significantly effective and flexible in supporting carrier-free THz communications.

Quasi-Elliptic Lossy Filter With Reconfigurable Bandwidth

This letter proposed a quasi-elliptic lossy filter with a wide tunable bandwidth and enhanced passband flatness. For adapting the limited circuit sizes, a new type of lossy technique named center-loaded resistive-cross-couplings (CLRCCs) is proposed. By loading resistor coupling at the centers of half-wavelength resonators, additional mid-passband losses can be introduced to flatten the passband. A bandwidth reconfigurable five-pole filter with a hybrid structure is developed for the examination. The measured promising results showed the superiority of the proposed novel lossy method for wideband tunable filters.

Measurement principles for quantum spectroscopy of molecular materials with entangled photons.

Nonlinear spectroscopy with quantum entangled photons is an emerging field of research that holds the promise to achieve superior signal-to-noise ratio and effectively isolate many-body interactions. Photon sources used for this purpose, however, lack the frequency tunability and spectral bandwidth demanded by contemporary molecular materials. Here, we present design strategies for efficient spontaneous parametric downconversion to generate biphoton states with adequate spectral bandwidth and at visible wavelengths. Importantly, we demonstrate, by suitable design of the nonlinear optical interaction, the scope to engineer the degree of spectral correlations between the photons of the pair. We also present an experimental methodology to effectively characterize such spectral correlations. Importantly, we believe that such a characterization tool can be effectively adapted as a spectroscopy platform to optically probe system-bath interactions in materials.

Reconfigurable AWGR based on LNOI with a tunable central wavelength and bandwidth used in elastic optical networking.

Elastic optical networking introduces elasticity and adaptation into the optical domain, which highly depends on reconfigurable optical devices. In this paper, a tunable 4×4 arrayed waveguide grating router based on lithium niobate on insulator is designed. By using the electro-optic effect of lithium niobate, we design electrode regions with specific shapes in the array waveguide region to realize the tuning of the routing wavelength and bandwidth of the third output channel. The designed arrayed waveguide grating router (AWGR) has a dense channel spacing of 0.8nm, and the minimum insertion loss is 2.3dB. Experiments show that the tuning range of the central wavelength can reach 3.2nm, and the 3dB bandwidth can be expanded from 0.2 to 0.6nm.

Design and analysis of tunable optical filter based on silicon-on-insulator photonic crystal for visible light communication

In this paper, tunable narrow bandwidth band-stop and band-pass optical filters for visible light communication (VLC) are designed and numerically investigated using a photonic crystal (PC) structure. Designing a tunable filter for visible light communication is crucial for enhancing spectral utilization and maximizing communication efficiency. A rectangular defect with optimized sides length utilized in the center of the PC structure based on the desired filtering characteristics. To obtain a favorable narrow bandwidth filter for visible light wavelengths, this defect is filled with a specific liquid crystal. In addition, an electric field is applied to the proposed structure in order to change the refractive index of the liquid crystal and achieve tunability in the desired range. The functional wavelength ranges of band-pass and band-stop filters are 550–570 nm and 565–585 nm, respectively. Applying an electric field causes a shift in the central wavelengths of the filters. It is shown that a 1.5 nm central wavelength shift for a band-stop filter and a 0.9 nm central wavelength shift for a band-pass filter can be achieved by changing the voltage source up to 1.5 V. In addition, the impact that the variation in the length of the rectangular defects’ sides has on the filtering characteristics of the proposed device is studied.

High-resolution reconfigurable RF signal spectral processor.

Recent developments in microwave photonic filters (MPFs) offer superior properties for radio frequency (RF) signal processing, such as large instantaneous bandwidth, high resolution and multifunctional shapes. However, it is quite challenging to realize two or more characteristics simultaneously to meet the diverse needs in complex electromagnetic environment. In this paper, we propose a reconfigurable RF signal spectral processor with both large instantaneous bandwidth and high resolution. In the proposed spectral processor, sufficient taps supplied by an optical frequency comb (OFC) offer a large instantaneous bandwidth to process broadband RF signals. Flexible tap coefficients can be obtained by manipulating an optical spectral shaper (OSS), which provides excellent reconfigurability. This tap-by-tap manipulation is realized with a high resolution of hundreds of megahertz, allowing precise shape configuration of the response. In the experiment, we demonstrate a flat-top response with a wide bandwidth of 7.1 GHz. Reconfigurable features such as tunable bandwidth, adjustable center frequency and diverse shapes are also shown. In particular, the measured frequency resolution of 96.5 MHz demonstrates the ability for precise configuration.

Notch Microwave Photonic Filter With Narrow Bandwidth and Ultra-High All-Optical Tuning Efficiency Based on a Silicon Nanobeam Cavity

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a narrowband notch microwave photonic filter (MPF) with an ultra-high all-optical tuning efficiency based on an optimized high-quality (Q) nanobeam photonic crystal (PhC) cavity. By optimizing the structural parameters, the hole shapes and the waveguide width of the cavity, a silicon nanobeam cavity with a theoretical high-Q factor of 4×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">8</sup> , a small mode volume (V) of 0.32(λ/ <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</i> ) <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> and a compact size of 6 μm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> could be obtained. Due to the extremely high Q/V ratio beyond 1×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">9</sup> , the nonlinear effects in the cavity could be efficiently excited, which is beneficial for on-chip low-power signal processing. In the experiment, by adjusting the wavelength of the optical carrier, the central frequency of the notch MPF could be widely tuned from 1 GHz to 40 GHz with maintaining the 3dB-bandwidth around 198 MHz and rejection ratios beyond 50 dB. On the other side, the central frequency of the MPF could be all-optically tuned based on the nonlinear effects in the cavity. Owing to the cavity extremely high Q/V ratio, the MPF frequency can be adjusted with an ultra-high tuning efficiency of 308.8 GHz/mW. To the best of our knowledge, whether the notch MPF narrow 3dB-bandwidth of 198 MHz or the all-optical tuning efficiency of 308.8 GHz/mW is a record value among the reported silicon-cavity-based notch MPFs with such a compact device size. With the dominant advantages of sub-gigahertz narrowband, wide tuning range, ultra-high all-optical tuning efficiency and extremely compact cavity size, the proposed MPFs illustrate competitive performance for on-chip microwave signal processing.

Synaptic zinc potentiates AMPA receptor function in mouse auditory cortex

Synaptic zinc signaling modulates synaptic activity and is present in specific populations of cortical neurons, suggesting that synaptic zinc contributes to the diversity of intracortical synaptic microcircuits and their functional specificity. To understand the role of zinc signaling in the cortex, we performed whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from intratelencephalic (IT)-type neurons and pyramidal tract (PT)-type neurons in layer 5 of the mouse auditory cortex during optogenetic stimulation of specific classes of presynaptic neurons. Our results show that synaptic zinc potentiates AMPA receptor (AMPAR) function in a synapse-specific manner. We performed invivo 2-photon calcium imaging of the same classes of neurons in awake mice and found that changes in synaptic zinc can widen or sharpen the sound-frequency tuning bandwidth of IT-type neurons but only widen the tuning bandwidth of PT-type neurons. These results provide evidence for synapse- and cell-type-specific actions of synaptic zinc in the cortex.

Engineering Metal-Organic Frameworks with Tunable Colors for High-Performance Wireless Communication.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as excellent platforms possessing tunable and controllable optical behaviors that are essential in high-speed and multichannel data transmission in optical wireless communications (OWCs). Here, we demonstrate a novel approach to achieving a tunable wide modulation bandwidth and high net data rate by engineering a combination of organic linkers and metal clusters in MOFs. More specifically, two organic linkers of different emission colors, but equal molecular length and connectivity, are successfully coordinated by zirconium and hafnium oxy-hydroxy clusters to form the desired MOF structures. The precise change in the interactions between these different organic linkers and metal clusters enables control over fluorescence efficiency and excited state lifetime, leading to a tunable modulation bandwidth from 62.1 to 150.0 MHz and a net data rate from 303 to 363 Mb/s. The fabricated color converter MOFs display outstanding performance that competes, and in some instances surpasses, those of conventional materials commonly used in light converter devices. Moreover, these MOFs show high practicality in color-pure wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), which significantly improved the data transmission link capacity and security by the contemporary combining of two different data signals in the same path. This work highlights the potential of engineered MOFs as a game-changer in OWCs, with significant implications for future high-speed and secure data transmission.

Tunable dielectric resonator antenna with circular polarization and wide bandwidth for terahertz applications

In this paper, a tunable wideband circularly polarization (CP) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is designed and simulated. The antenna is fed by slot coupling and circular polarization is achieved by the design of the slot configuration and by the excitation of different modes. The tunable response is provided by coating graphene on the top of the radiating dielectric resonator. The proposed antenna provides a wide 10 dB impedance bandwidth of 49% (2.7–4.46 THz) and an overlapped axial ratio bandwidth of 17.34% (2.87–3.43 THz).