A SOA-based high Q microwave photonic filter

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel all-optical microwave filter with high quality factor (Q). It is based on a recirculating delay line (RDL) loop in which a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is followed by a tunable narrow-band optical filter and a 1x2 10:90 optical coupler. Converted signal used as a negative tap is generated through wavelength conversion employing the cross-gain modulation (XGM) of the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectrum of the SOA. The converted signal can circulate in the RDL loop so that the proposed filter realizes a high Q factor response after photo-detection. The 1x2 10:90 coupler is employed to extract 10% optical power from the loop as output. A frequency response with a high Q factor of 543, a rejection ratio of 40 dB is experimentally demonstrated.

[1]  B. Ortega,et al.  A tutorial on microwave photonic filters , 2006, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[2]  Robert A. Minasian,et al.  Photonic signal processing of microwave signals , 2006 .

[3]  Wei Zhang,et al.  Tap multiplexed fibre grating-based optical transversal filter , 2000 .

[4]  M. Piqueras,et al.  Tunable and reconfigurable photonic microwave filter based on stimulated Brillouin scattering. , 2007, Optics letters.

[5]  J. Marti,et al.  WDM Photonic Microwave Filter With Variable Cosine Windowing Based on a DGD Module , 2006, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[6]  J. Capmany,et al.  Continuous tuning of photonic transversal filter based on the modification of tapped weights , 2006, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[7]  P. Fonjallaz,et al.  Compact microwave photonic transversal filter with 40-dB sidelobe suppression , 2005, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[8]  Jing Xu,et al.  A Delay-Based Multicast Overlay Scheme for WDM Passive Optical Networks With 10-Gb/s Symmetric Two-Way Traffics , 2010, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[9]  J. Capmany,et al.  Optical microwave filter based on spectral slicing by use of arrayed waveguide gratings. , 2003, Optics letters.

[10]  Lu Chao,et al.  Tunable microwave filter design using wavelength conversion technique and high dispersion time delays , 2001 .

[11]  Yu Zhang,et al.  All-Optical Microwave Filter With High Frequency Selectivity Based on Semiconductor Optical Amplifier and Optical Filter , 2010, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[12]  Dexiu Huang,et al.  All-optical microwave notch filter with flat passband based on semiconductor optical amplifier , 2009 .

[13]  R. A. Minasian,et al.  Photonic signal processing of microwave signals using an active-fiber Bragg-grating-pair structure , 1997 .

[14]  Zhang Xin-Liang,et al.  Q value analysis of a first-order IIR microwave photonic filter based on SOA , 2009 .

[15]  K. Williams,et al.  Microwave photonics , 2002 .