TY - JOUR
T1 - Low-error and broadband microwave frequency measurement in a silicon chip
AU - Pagani, Mattia
AU - Morrison, Blair
AU - Zhang, Yanbing
AU - Casas-Bedoya, Alvaro
AU - Aalto, Timo
AU - Harjanne, Mikko
AU - Kapulainen, Markku
AU - Eggleton, Benjamin J.
AU - Marpaung, David
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Instantaneous frequency measurement (IFM) of microwave
signals is a fundamental functionality for applications
ranging from electronic warfare to biomedical technology.
Photonic techniques, and nonlinear optical interactions
in particular, have the potential to broaden the
frequency measurement range beyond the limits of
electronic IFM systems. The key lies in efficiently
harnessing optical mixing in an integrated nonlinear
platform, with low losses. In this work, we exploit the
low loss of a 35 cm long, thick silicon waveguide to
efficiently harness Kerr nonlinearity and demonstrate, to
the best of our knowledge, the first on-chip four-wave
mixing-based IFM system. We achieve a large, 40 GHz
measurement bandwidth and a record-low measurement error.
Finally, we discuss the future prospect of integrating
the whole IFM system on a silicon chip to enable the
first reconfigurable, broadband IFM receiver with low
latency.
AB - Instantaneous frequency measurement (IFM) of microwave
signals is a fundamental functionality for applications
ranging from electronic warfare to biomedical technology.
Photonic techniques, and nonlinear optical interactions
in particular, have the potential to broaden the
frequency measurement range beyond the limits of
electronic IFM systems. The key lies in efficiently
harnessing optical mixing in an integrated nonlinear
platform, with low losses. In this work, we exploit the
low loss of a 35 cm long, thick silicon waveguide to
efficiently harness Kerr nonlinearity and demonstrate, to
the best of our knowledge, the first on-chip four-wave
mixing-based IFM system. We achieve a large, 40 GHz
measurement bandwidth and a record-low measurement error.
Finally, we discuss the future prospect of integrating
the whole IFM system on a silicon chip to enable the
first reconfigurable, broadband IFM receiver with low
latency.
U2 - 10.1364/OPTICA.2.000751
DO - 10.1364/OPTICA.2.000751
M3 - Article
SN - 2334-2536
VL - 2
SP - 751
EP - 756
JO - Optica
JF - Optica
IS - 8
ER -