Low power consumption and continuously tunable all-optical microwave filter based on an opto-mechanical microring resonator

A broadband and low-power light-control-light effect in a fiber-optic nano-optomechanical system

The coupling of the optical and mechanical degrees of freedom using optical force in nano-devices offers a novel mechanism to implement all-optical signal processing. However, the ultra-weak optical force requires a high pump optical power to realize all-optical processing. For such devices, it is still challenging to lower the pump power and simultaneously broaden the bandwidth of the signal light under processing. In this work, a simple and cost-effective optomechanical scheme was demonstrated that was capable of achieving a broadband (208 nm) and micro-Watt (∼624.13 μW) light-control-light effect driven by a relatively weak optical force (∼3 pN). In the scheme, a tapered nanofiber (TNF) was evanescently coupled with a substrate, allowing the pump light guided in the TNF to generate a strong transverse optical force for the light-control-light effect. Additionally, thanks to the low stiffness (5.44 fN nm^-1) of the TNF, the light-control-light scheme also provided a simple method to measure the static weak optical force with a minimum detectable optical force down to 380.8 fN. The results establish TNF as a cost-effective scheme to break the limitation of the modulation wavelength bandwidth (MWB) at a low pump power and show that the TNF-optic optomechanical system can be well described as a harmonic oscillator.

All-optical tunable microwave filter with ultra-high peak rejection and low-power consumption

We propose and experimentally demonstrate microwave photonic filters (MPFs) with high rejection ratios and large tuning ranges of the central frequency and bandwidth leveraging four cascaded opto-mechanical microring resonators (MRRs). As half waveguides of each MRR are free-hanging in the air, the nonlinear effects in the opto-mechanical MRRs could be efficiently excited. Consequently, the transmission characteristics of the cascaded MRRs could be flexibly manipulated by adjusting the input pump powers. When the resonant wavelengths of every two MRRs are tuned to be aligned, the transmission spectrum of the silicon device is a notch bimodal distribution with high extinction ratios. The optical carrier is fixed at the flat region of the bimodal distribution. Under optical double sideband (ODSB) modulation, MPFs with high rejection ratios could be achieved due to the high extinction ratio of the cascaded rings. Moreover, the central frequency and bandwidth of the MPFs could be tuned by properly adjusting the pump powers. In the experiment, with a low power of 2.56 mW, the MPF central frequency and bandwidth could be tuned from 7.12 GHz to 39.16 GHz and from 11.3 GHz to 17.6 GHz, respectively. More importantly, the MPF rejection ratios are beyond 60 dB. Furthermore, during the bandwidth tuning process, an MPF response with approximately equiripple stopband could be realized. Owing to the dominant advantages of high rejection ratios, large tuning ranges, low power consumption and compact size, the silicon device has many significant applications in on-chip microwave systems.

Tunable all-optical microwave filter with high tuning efficiency

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a continuously tunable all-optical microwave filter based on a photonic crystal (PC) L3 cavity. Due to the small cavity mode volume and prominent optical properties, the required power to arouse the cavity nonlinear effects is low as microwatt level. Moreover, the cavity resonance could be continuously shifted by finely adjusting the input powers. Therefore, under optical single sideband modulation, the frequency interval between the optical carrier and cavity resonance could be controllable. In this case, the central frequency of the microwave photonic filter (MPF) could be continuously tuned with low power consumption. To the best of our knowledge, the experimental tuning efficiency of 101.45 GHz/mW is a record for on-chip tunable all-optical microwave filters. With dominant features of all-optical control, ultra-high tuning efficiency (101.45 GHz/mW), large rejection ratios (48 dB) and compact footprint (100 µm²), the proposed silicon nanocavity is competent to process microwave signals, which has many useful applications in on-chip energy-efficient microwave photonic systems.

Performance improvements of a tunable bandpass microwave photonic filter based on a notch ring resonator using phase modulation with dual optical carriers

A tunable bandpass microwave photonic filter can be achieved by using a notch ring resonator with optical phase modulation. However, the filter's out of band rejection ratio and shape factor are limited due to the ring resonator's residual phase, which can seriously degrade the filter's performance. By using dual optical carriers and setting their wavelengths oppositely detuned from two resonant frequencies of a notch ring resonator, the residual phase induced by the ring resonator at radio frequencies falling outside the region of the notch stopband is reduced, thus the out-of-band rejection ratio and shape factor of the microwave photonic filter are greatly improved. The proposed microwave photonic filter was both verified theoretically and experimentally. Compared with single optical carrier method, the out-of-band rejection ratio of the filter can be enhanced from 17.7dB to 31.5dB, and the filter's shape factor is improved from 3.05 to 1.78. Besides, the filter's frequency and bandwidth can be tuned by varying the wavelengths of the two optical carriers and the ring resonator's coupling coefficients. Finally, a tunable bandpass microwave photonic filter with frequency tuning range of 2~14GHz, 3dB bandwidth tuning range of 0.673~2.798GHz is demonstrated.

Recent Trends and Advances of Silicon-Based Integrated Microwave Photonics

Multitude applications of photonic devices and technologies for the generation and manipulation of arbitrary and random microwave waveforms, at unprecedented processing speeds, have been proposed in the literature over the past three decades. This class of photonic applications for microwave engineering is known as microwave photonics (MWP). The vast capabilities of MWP have allowed the realization of key functionalities which are either highly complex or simply not possible in the microwave domain alone. Recently, this growing field has adopted the integrated photonics technologies to develop microwave photonic systems with enhanced robustness as well as with a significant reduction of size, cost, weight, and power consumption. In particular, silicon photonics technology is of great interest for this aim as it offers outstanding possibilities for integration of highly-complex active and passive photonic devices, permitting monolithic integration of MWP with high-speed silicon electronics. In this article, we present a review of recent work on MWP functions developed on the silicon platform. We particularly focus on newly reported designs for signal modulation, arbitrary waveform generation, filtering, true-time delay, phase shifting, beam steering, and frequency measurement.

On-chip passive optical diode with low-power consumption

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-silicon passive optical diode with low-power consumption and high nonreciprocal transmission ratios (NTRs) based on cascaded opto-mechanical microring resonators (MRRs). As the oxide substrates of the opto-mechanical MRRs are removed, the nonlinear effects in the free-hanging waveguides could be efficiently activated by low optical powers. The operation principle of the optical diode is based on the asymmetric resonance red-shifts of the two MRRs in the forward and backward transmissions, which could be effectively induced by the nonlinear effects. In the experiment, with injecting an optical power low as 0.96 dBm, a high NTR of 33.6 dB and a relatively broad 20-dB bandwidth of 0.11 nm are achieved. The proposed passive optical diode is competent to process optical signals with dominant advantages of CMOS-compatibility, a compact footprint, low-power consumptions and high NTRs, which has significant applications for on-chip signal processing systems, such as logic gates and optical computing.

High-performance thermo-optic tunable grating filters based on laterally supported suspended silicon ridge waveguide

We demonstrate a novel thermally tunable grating optical filter based on suspended silicon ridge waveguide with low power consumption, fast response and relatively high mechanical stability. An enhanced power efficiency of ~300 pm/mW is achieved by employing isolation trench. Periodic lateral tethers and anchors are utilized to support the overall waveguide for maintaining mechanical robustness. 10%-90% rising time and falling time are measured to be 78 μs and 52 μs, respectively. Simulations and experiments both indicate that the demonstrated device has a relatively homogeneous temperature distribution, which is essential for practical integrated photonic devices.

Low-power all-optical microwave filter with tunable central frequency and bandwidth based on cascaded opto-mechanical microring resonators

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-optical microwave filter with tunable central frequency and bandwidth based on two cascaded silicon opto-mechanical microring resonators (MRRs). Due to the Vernier effect, transmission spectrum of the cascaded MRRs is a series of notch bimodal distribution. In the case of intensity modulation with optical double-sideband (ODSB) signals, the optical carrier is fixed between the two resonant peaks of one notch bimodal distribution. By injecting two pump powers to control the above two resonance red-shifts based on the nonlinear effects in opto-mechanical MRRs, the frequency intervals between the optical carrier and the two resonances could be flexibly manipulated for tunable microwave processing. In the experiment, with the highest required pump powers of 1.65 mW and 0.96 mW, the central frequency and bandwidth of the notch microwave photonic filter (MPF) could be tuned from 5 GHz to 36 GHz and 6.7 GHz to 10.3 GHz, respectively. The proposed opto-mechanical device is competent to process microwave signals with dominant advantages of all-optical control, compact footprint, wide tuning range and low-power consumption, which has significant applications in on-chip microwave systems.