Electro-optic (EO) modulators rely on the interaction of optical and electrical signals with second-order nonlinear media. For the optical signal, this interaction can be strongly enhanced using dielectric slot–waveguide structures that exploit a field discontinuity at the interface between a high-index waveguide core and the low-index EO cladding. In contrast to this, the electrical signal is usually applied through conductive regions in the direct vicinity of the optical waveguide. To avoid excessive optical loss, the conductivity of these regions is maintained at a moderate level, thus leading to inherent
Radio-frequency (RF) waveform synthesis has broad applications in ultrawide-bandwidth wireless communications, radar systems, and electronic testing. Photonic-based approaches offer key advantages in bandwidth and phase noise thanks to the ultrahigh optical carrier frequency. In this work, we demonstrate Fourier synthesis arbitrary waveform generation (AWG) with integrated optical microresonator solitons. The RF temporal waveform is synthesized through line-by-line amplitude and phase shaping of an optical soliton microcomb, which is down-converted to the RF domain through dual-comb optical coherent sampling. A variety of RF waveforms with tunable repetition cycles are shown in our demonstration. Our approach provides not only the possibility of precise Fourier synthesis at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies, but also a viable path to fully integrated photonic-based RF AWG on a chip.
- Award ID(s):
- 2023775
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10369315
- Journal Name:
- Photonics Research
- Volume:
- 10
- Issue:
- 4
- Page Range or eLocation-ID:
- Article No. 932
- ISSN:
- 2327-9125
- Publisher:
- Optical Society of America
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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