Reconfigurable microwave photonic filter based on polarization modulation

Abstract. A reconfigurable microwave photonic filter based on a polarization modulator (PolM) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The PolM together with a polarization controller (PC) and a polarization beam splitter (PBS) implements two complementary intensity modulations in two separated branches. Then, optical components are inserted in the two branches to realize a bandpass filter and an allpass filter, respectively. When the two branches are combined by a second PBS, a filter with a frequency response that equals the subtraction of the frequency responses of the allpass filter and bandpass filter is achieved. By adjusting the PCs placed before the second PBS, a notch filter with a tunable notch depth or a bandpass filter can be achieved.