Abstract

We show that a fiber-optics architecture conventionally used for microwave photonic filtering can implement a time-spectrum convolution (TSC) process of general interest for a wide range of fundamental optical signal processing and analysis operations. This process is practically implemented by temporally modulating a specially filtered broadband incoherent light source followed by propagation through a suitable linear dispersive medium. The TSC concept allows the time-domain realization of fundamental analog processing operations over both temporal and spectral intensity waveforms. Three particular, relevant signal-processing operations are proposed and experimentally demonstrated here to illustrate the broad potential of application of the TSC concept, namely time-integration, spectrum-integration, and time-frequency correlation of discrete binary codes.

© 2010 Optical Society of America

Single-shot photonic time-intensity integration based on a time-spectrum convolution system

Antonio Malacarne, Reza Ashrafi, Ming Li, Sophie LaRochelle, Jianping Yao, and José Azaña
Opt. Lett. 37(8) 1355-1357 (2012)

Generating the orbital angular momentum of radio frequency signals using optical-true-time-delay unit based on optical spectrum processor

Xinlu Gao, Shanguo Huang, Yunlong Song, Shangyuan Li, Yongfeng Wei, Jing Zhou, Xiaoping Zheng, Hanyi Zhang, and Wanyi Gu
Opt. Lett. 39(9) 2652-2655 (2014)

Integrated electro-optic Bragg processors for digital real-time signal processing

R. Arrathoon, E. R. Schroeder, and L. D. Hutcheson
Opt. Lett. 10(5) 244-246 (1985)

Ultrahigh dispersion of broadband microwave signals by incoherent photonic processing

Yongwoo Park and José Azaña
Opt. Express 18(14) 14752-14761 (2010)

Signal recovery in optical wireless communication using photonic convolutional processor

Qiuyi Lu, Zwei Li, Guoqiang Li, Wenqing Niu, Jiang Chen, Hui Chen, Jianyang Shi, Chao Shen, Junwen Zhang, and Nan Chi
Opt. Express 30(22) 39466-39478 (2022)