Tunable and reconfigurable photonic microwave filter based on stimulated Brillouin scattering

Optoacoustic Cooling of Traveling Hypersound Waves

We experimentally demonstrate optoacoustic cooling via stimulated Brillouin-Mandelstam scattering in a 50 cm long tapered photonic crystal fiber. For a 7.38 GHz acoustic mode, a cooling rate of 219 K from room temperature has been achieved. As anti-Stokes and Stokes Brillouin processes naturally break the symmetry of phonon cooling and heating, resolved sideband schemes are not necessary. The experiments pave the way to explore the classical to quantum transition for macroscopic objects and could enable new quantum technologies in terms of storage and repeater schemes.

Ultra-Narrow Bandwidth Microwave Photonic Filter Implemented by Single Longitudinal Mode Parity Time Symmetry Brillouin Fiber Laser

In this paper, a novel microwave photonic filter (MPF) based on a single longitudinal mode Brillouin laser achieved by parity time (PT) symmetry mode selection is proposed, and its unparalleled ultra-narrow bandwidth as low as to sub-kHz together with simple and agile tuning performance is experimentally verified. The Brillouin fiber laser ring resonator is cascaded with a PT symmetric system to achieve this MPF. Wherein, the Brillouin laser resonator is excited by a 5 km single mode fiber to generate Brillouin gain, and the PT symmetric system is configured with Polarization Beam Splitter (PBS) and polarization controller (PC) to achieve PT symmetry. Thanks to the significant enhancement of the gain difference between the main mode and the edge mode when the polarization state PT symmetry system breaks, a single mode oscillating Brillouin laser is generated. Through the selective amplification of sideband modulated signals by ultra-narrow linewidth Brillouin single mode laser gain, the MPF with ultra-narrow single passband performance is obtained. By simply tuning the central wavelength of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) pumped laser to adjust the Brillouin oscillation frequency, the gain position of the Brillouin laser can be shifted, thereby achieving flexible tunability. The experimental results indicate that the MPF proposed in this paper achieves a single pass band narrow to 72 Hz and the side mode rejection ratio of more than 18 dB, with a center frequency tuning range of 0-20 GHz in the testing range of vector network analysis, which means that the MPF possesses ultra high spectral resolution and enormous potential application value in the domain of ultra fine microwave spectrum filtering such as radar imaging and electronic countermeasures.

Flexible channel selection method based on optical combs for broadband signals receiving

A flexible channel selection method based on optical combs is proposed for reconfigurable optical channels in this paper. Optical-frequency combs with a large frequency interval are used to modulate broadband radio frequency (RF) signals, and an on-chip reconfigurable optical filter [Proc. of SPIE, 11763, 1176370 (2021).10.1117/12.2587403] is used to perform periodic carrier separation of wideband and narrowband signals and channel selection. In addition, flexible channel selection is achieved by presetting the parameters of a fast-response programmable wavelength-selective optical switch and filter device. Channel selection only relies on the combs through the Vernier effect of the combs and the passbands for different periods and does not require the use an additional switch matrix. Finally, flexible switching between and selection of specific channels for 13 GHz and 19 GHz broadband RF signals are experimentally verified.

High accuracy measurement of Poisson's ratio of optical fibers and its temperature dependence using forward-stimulated Brillouin scattering

Transverse acoustic mode resonances enable a high accuracy determination of Poisson's ratio and elastic properties of optical fibers. An all-optical pump and probe technique is used for efficient excitation and accurate characterization of both, radial and torsional-radial acoustic resonances of optical fibers. Simple and precise algebraic expressions for the frequencies of high order acoustic resonances are derived, enabling a rigorous analysis of the experimental data using standard least squares fitting. Following this approach, the determination of Poisson's ratio does not require the measurement of any physical length, but only frequency measurements are required. An accuracy better than 1 ‰ is achieved. The dependence of the fiber Poisson's ratio with temperature is also determined experimentally.

Frequency response of a continuously tuning narrow-band optical filter based on stimulated Brillouin scattering

Tunable narrow-band optical filter (TNOF) based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) has been applied in various applications such as microwave photonics and a high-resolution optical spectrum analyzer (OSA). While the frequency response of a SBS-based filter has always been an important characteristic in the reported studies, few have addressed the issue of the filter response under a continuously tuning condition. When the tuning speed is too fast, the filter response will change and cause spectral distortion. In this paper, the frequency response of SBS-TNOF under a wavelength-swept pump (i.e., continuously tuning) condition is investigated and modeled. Experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis and verify that the broadening of the SBS-TNOF response is induced by the pump wavelength difference along different positions of the fiber, which can be explained as convolution with broadband pump as well. Based on the widely used Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm and proposed SBS-TNOF response model, the distorted responses are successfully reconstructed and the sweep speed dependency is almost eliminated. Commonly used on-off keying signal is tested using the proposed reconstruction method to assess its performance in the SBS-OSA. Both the overall profile and the detail of the signal spectra are significantly recovered, and the quantitatively evaluation illustrates that the feasible sweep speed can be improved from ∼45 nm/s to over 95 nm/s.

Active Information Manipulation via Optically Driven Acoustic-Wave Interference

Implementing on-chip information processing systems through photonic-phononic interactions has attracted considerable interest owing to its potential for storing, sensing, and signal processing, but the generation and extinction of acoustic waves are determined by the existence of pump power and the phonon lifetime. Here, we demonstrate the acoustic-wave interference and active information manipulation by optically driven acoustic waves in a silicon photonic-phononic controller-emitter-receiver system. The filtered and transmitted information to the receiver has a narrow bandwidth of 6.2 MHz and can be amplified or canceled with a contrast greater than 40 dB by adjusting the relative microwave phase between the emitter and controller. The pulse-train signals can be transmitted, amplified, and canceled with a 3 dB cutoff frequency of 3.1 MHz. The proposed technique provides a potential solution for highly selective on-chip filtering, phase shifters, and information manipulation, offering new functions to optomechanical signal processing and silicon photonics.

Picosecond acoustic dynamics in stimulated Brillouin scattering

Recent experiments demonstrating storage of optical pulses in acoustic phonons via stimulated Brillouin scattering raise questions about the spectral and temporal capacities of such protocols and the limitations of the theoretical frameworks routinely used to describe them. We consider the dynamics of photon-phonon scattering induced by optical pulses with temporal widths comparable to the period of acoustic oscillations. We revisit the widely adopted classical formalism of coupled modes and demonstrate its breakdown. We use a simple extension to the formulation and find potentially measurable consequences in the dynamics of Brillouin experiments involving ultrashort pulses.

Low-RF-loss and large-rejection reconfigurable Brillouin-based RF photonic bandpass filter

We present a high-performance radio frequency (RF) photonic bandpass filter enabled by combining on-chip Brillouin scattering with a suppressed carrier phase modulation scheme. We achieve a low RF loss of 5 dB and a large stopband rejection of more than 40 dB, which represents a significant improvement of 20 dB to the RF passband gain and 31 dB to the RF rejection ratio over traditional modulation schemes under the same optical power consumption. We further demonstrate filter reconfigurability including multiple passbands, wide frequency (1-20 GHz), and bandwidth tunability (30-350 MHz) without compromising the RF performance.

Brillouin instantaneous frequency measurement with an arbitrary response for potential real-time implementation

We demonstrate an arbitrary-response Brillouin instantaneous frequency measurement (IFM) based on the principle of the frequency-to-power mapping in stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), which is named Brillouin IFM. The arbitrary response is realized by periodically sweeping the frequency of the local pump lightwave, and the response's amplitude depends on the sweeping slope. The Brillouin IFM is achieved by the control of the sweeping period lower than the double of the flight-of-time in the SBS interaction length. A Costas frequency coded pulse is experimentally measured to verify the feasibility of the proposed Brillouin IFM scheme. The bandwidth of the digital sampling in the scheme is reduced to 50 MHz. The Brillouin IFM range without averaging reaches 6 GHz at Ku band.

Ultra-high speed RF filtering switch based on stimulated Brillouin scattering

Radio frequency (RF) filtering switch is highly desired for signal routing or manipulation in the RF system. Based on the stimulated Brillouin scattering effect and the electro-optics Pockels effect, we propose a novel RF filtering switch with a high-frequency filtering precision and a fast switching speed. We have experimentally demonstrated the RF filtering with a high precision of ∼34  MHz, a wide operation bandwidth of ∼18  GHz, and the RF switching at a speed of <100  ps, which is hundreds of times faster than the traditional RF switch.

Arbitrary-shaped Brillouin microwave photonic filter by manipulating a directly modulated pump

We present a cost-effective gigahertz-wide arbitrary-shaped microwave photonic filter based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in fiber using a directly modulated laser (DML). After analyzing the relationship between the spectral power density and the modulation current of the DML, we manage to precisely adjust the optical spectrum of the DML, thereby controlling the Brillouin filter response arbitrarily for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The filter performance is evaluated by amplifying a 500 Mb/s non-return-to-zero on-off keying signal using a 1 GHz rectangular filter. The comparison between the proposed DML approach and the previous approach adopting a complex IQ modulator shows similar filter flexibility, shape fidelity, and noise performance, proving that the DML-based Brillouin filter technique is a cost-effective and valid solution for microwave photonic applications.

Tunable photonic radiofrequency filter with complementary bandpass and bandstop responses

A photonic radiofrequency (RF) filter with two complementary bandpass and bandstop responses that is capable of simultaneously providing a single transmission channel at one port and a notch rejection channel at the other port is proposed. An integrated polarization division-multiplexing Mach-Zehnder modulator and the in-fiber stimulated Brillouin scattering effect are used to control the amplitudes and phases of the RF modulation sidebands along two orthogonal states of polarization to generate two complementary bandpass and bandstop responses at two output ports, respectively. Experiments are then performed. Two complementary responses are simultaneously generated in a high-frequency resolution of ∼20  MHz, with a rejection over 35 or 51 dB being achieved for the passband or stopband. A tunable central frequency to the bandpass and bandstop responses is also demonstrated within the range from 3 to 15 GHz.

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.

High-resolution, on-chip RF photonic signal processor using Brillouin gain shaping and RF interference

Integrated microwave photonics has strongly emerged as a next-generation technology to address limitations of conventional RF electronics for wireless communications. High-resolution RF signal processing still remains a challenge due to limitations in technology that offer sub-GHz spectral resolution, in particular at high carrier frequencies. In this paper, we present an on-chip high-resolution RF signal processor, capable of providing high-suppression spectral filtering, large phase shifts and ns-scale time delays. This was achieved through tailoring of the Brillouin gain profiles using Stokes and anti-Stokes resonances combined with RF interferometry on a low-loss photonic chip with strong opto-acoustic interactions. Using an optical power of <40 mW, reconfigurable filters with a bandwidth of ~20 MHz and an extinction ratio in excess of 30 dB are synthesized. Through the concept of vector addition of RF signals we demonstrate, almost an order of magnitude amplification in the phase and delay compared to devices purely based upon the slow-light effect of Brillouin scattering. This concept allows for versatile and power-efficient manipulation of the amplitude and phase of RF signals on a photonic chip for applications in wireless communications including software defined radios and beam forming.

On-chip inter-modal Brillouin scattering

Brillouin nonlinearities-which result from coupling between photons and acoustic phonons-are exceedingly weak in conventional nanophotonic silicon waveguides. Only recently have Brillouin interactions been transformed into the strongest and most tailorable nonlinear interactions in silicon using a new class of optomechanical waveguides that control both light and sound. In this paper, we use a multi-mode optomechanical waveguide to create stimulated Brillouin scattering between light-fields guided in distinct spatial modes of an integrated waveguide for the first time. This interaction, termed stimulated inter-modal Brillouin scattering, decouples Stokes and anti-Stokes processes to enable single-sideband amplification and dynamics that permit near-unity power conversion. Using integrated mode multiplexers to address separate optical modes, we show that circulators and narrowband filters are not necessary to separate pump and signal waves. We also demonstrate net optical amplification and Brillouin energy transfer as the basis for flexible on-chip light sources, amplifiers, nonreciprocal devices and signal-processing technologies.

Brillouin gain bandwidth reduction in Brillouin optical time domain analyzers

This paper proposes a novel method based on differential π-phase-shift long-pulse-width pair to narrow the Brillouin gain spectrum for improving the frequency accuracy in Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) system. This is the first approach to reduce the bandwidth of Brillouin gain spectrum for distributed sensing to the best of our knowledge. The temporal and spectral Brillouin responses for the proposal are analytically solved, and the key parameters such as pulse width and the length of π-phase-shift pulse section are investigated. Theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the proposal could achieve 17 MHz Brillouin gain spectrum bandwidth and a fixed spatial resolution of 2.5 m simultaneously, without signal-to-noise ratio penalty. This Brillouin gain spectrum is 3 times narrower than that obtained using standard single-pulse based BOTDA method with same spatial resolution, resulting in3times frequency accuracy improvement. Furthermore, such a significantly narrowed Brillouin gain spectrum provides more tolerance to the small temperature change when hot spots are introduced, giving rise to the sharper rising/falling edge of the Brillouin frequency shift profile along the sensing fiber. This way, more precise temperature/strain measurement can be obtained.

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

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a continuously tunable all-optical microwave filter using a silicon opto-mechanical microring resonator (MRR). By finely adjusting the pump light with submilliwatt power level, transmission spectrum of the MRR could be continuously shifted based on the nonlinear effects, including the opto-mechanical effect and thermo-optic effect. Therefore, in the case of optical single sideband (OSSB) modulation, the frequency intervals between the optical carrier (near one MRR resonance) and the corresponding resonance could be flexibly manipulated, which is the critical factor to achieve continuously tunable microwave photonic filter (MPF). In the experiment, the central frequency of the MPF could be continuously tuned from 6 GHz to 19 GHz with the pump power lower than -2.5 dBm. The proposed opto-mechanical device is competent to process microwave signals with dominant advantages, such as compact footprint, all-optical control and low power consumption. In the future, using light to control light, the opto-mechanical structure on silicon platforms might have many other potential applications in microwave systems, such as microwave switch.

Software-defined microwave photonic filter with high reconfigurable resolution

Microwave photonic filters (MPFs) are of great interest in radio frequency systems since they provide prominent flexibility on microwave signal processing. Although filter reconfigurability and tunability have been demonstrated repeatedly, it is still difficult to control the filter shape with very high precision. Thus the MPF application is basically limited to signal selection. Here we present a polarization-insensitive single-passband arbitrary-shaped MPF with ~GHz bandwidth based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in optical fibre. For the first time the filter shape, bandwidth and central frequency can all be precisely defined by software with ~MHz resolution. The unprecedented multi-dimensional filter flexibility offers new possibilities to process microwave signals directly in optical domain with high precision thus enhancing the MPF functionality. Nanosecond pulse shaping by implementing precisely defined filters is demonstrated to prove the filter superiority and practicability.

Tailoring of the Brillouin gain for on-chip widely tunable and reconfigurable broadband microwave photonic filters

An unprecedented Brillouin gain of 44 dB in a photonic chip enables the realization of broadly tunable and reconfigurable integrated microwave photonic filters. More than a decade bandwidth reconfigurability from 30 up to 440 MHz, with a passband ripple <1.9  dB is achieved by tailoring the Brillouin pump. The filter central frequency is continuously tuned up to 30 GHz with no degradation of the passband response, which is a major improvement over electronic filters. Furthermore, we demonstrate pump tailoring to realize multiple bandpass filters with different bandwidths and central frequencies, paving the way for multiple on-chip microwave filters and channelizers.

Power limits and a figure of merit for stimulated Brillouin scattering in the presence of third and fifth order loss

We derive a set of design guidelines and a figure of merit to aid the engineering process of on-chip waveguides for strong Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS). To this end, we examine the impact of several types of loss on the total amplification of the Stokes wave that can be achieved via SBS. We account for linear loss and nonlinear loss of third order (two-photon absorption, 2PA) and fifth order, most notably 2PA-induced free carrier absorption (FCA). From this, we derive an upper bound for the output power of continuous-wave Brillouin-lasers and show that the optimal operating conditions and maximal realisable Stokes amplification of any given waveguide structure are determined by a dimensionless parameter ℱ involving the SBS-gain and all loss parameters. We provide simple expressions for optimal pump power, waveguide length and realisable amplification and demonstrate their utility in two example systems. Notably, we find that 2PA-induced FCA is a serious limitation to SBS in silicon and germanium for wavelengths shorter than 2200nm and 3600nm, respectively. In contrast, three-photon absorption is of no practical significance.

Microwave photonic filter with multiple independently tunable passbands based on a broadband optical source

In this paper, a novel microwave photonic filter (MPF) with multiple independently tunable passbands is proposed. A broadband optical source (BOS) is employed and split by a 1:N coupler into several branches. One branch is directed to a phase modulator which is modulated by a radio frequency signal and the other branches are delayed by optical delay lines (ODLs), respectively. All of these branches are combined by another 1:N coupler and sent to a dispersion compensation fiber which is used to introduce group delay dispersion to the optical signal. At a photodetector, each time-delayed broadband lightwave beating with the sidebands produced by the phase modulator forms a passband of the MPF. By tuning the delay of each broadband lightwave, the center frequency of the passband can be independently tuned. An MPF with two independently tunable passbands is experimentally demonstrated. The two passbands can be tuned from DC to 30 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of about 250 MHz. The stability and dynamic range of the MPF are also evaluated. By employing more branches delayed by ODLs, more passbands can be generated.

Acoustic build-up in on-chip stimulated Brillouin scattering

We investigate the role of the spatial evolution of the acoustic field in stimulated Brillouin scattering processes in short high-gain structures. When the gain is strong enough that the gain length becomes comparable to the acoustic wave decay length of order 100 microns, standard approximations treating the acoustic field as a local response no longer apply. Treating the acoustic evolution more accurately, we find that the backward SBS gain of sub-millimetre long waveguides is significantly reduced from the value obtained by the conventional treatment because the acoustic mode requires several decay lengths to build up to its nominal value. In addition, the corresponding resonance line is broadened with the development of side bands. In contrast, we argue that intra-mode forward SBS is not expected to show these effects. Our results have implications for several recent proposals and experiments on high-gain stimulated Brillouin scattering in short semiconductor waveguides.

Ultra-high peak rejection notch microwave photonic filter using a single silicon microring resonator

We propose a simple scheme to realize ultra-high peak rejection notch microwave photonic filter (MPF) based on a single silicon microring resonator (MRR). Using the combination of a conventional phase modulator (PM), a tunable bandpass filter (TBF), and a silicon MRR to manipulate the phase and amplitude of optical sidebands resulting in a signal cancellation at the RF notch filter frequency, we experimentally demonstrate a notch MPF with an ultra-high peak rejection beyond 60 dB. The frequency tunability of the proposed ultra-high peak rejection MPF is also demonstrated in the experiment.

Tunable all-optical single-bandpass photonic microwave filter based on spectrally sliced broad optical source and phase modulation

A tunable all-optical single-bandpass photonic microwave filter (PMF) based on spectrally sliced broadband optical source and phase modulation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A broadband optical source and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) are used to generate continuous optical spectral samples, which are employed to form a finite impulse response filter with a single-bandpass response with the help of a single-mode fiber. A phase modulator is then adopted to eliminate the baseband components in the filtering response. The center frequency of the PMF can be tuned by changing the free spectral range of the MZI. An experiment is performed, and the results demonstrate that the proposed PMF has a single-bandpass without baseband components and a tuning range of 5-15 GHz.

Photonic chip based tunable and reconfigurable narrowband microwave photonic filter using stimulated Brillouin scattering

We report the first demonstration of a photonic chip based dynamically reconfigurable, widely tunable, narrow pass-band, high Q microwave photonic filter (MPF). We exploit stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in a 6.5 cm long chalcogenide (As2S3) photonic chip to demonstrate a MPF that exhibited a high quality factor of ~520 and narrow bandwidth and was dynamically reconfigurable and widely tunable. It maintained a stable 3 dB bandwidth of 23 ± 2MHz and amplitude of 20 ± 2 dB over a large frequency tuning range of 2-12 GHz. By tailoring the pump spectrum, we reconfigured the 3 dB bandwidth of the MPF from ~20 MHz to ~40 MHz and tuned the shape factor from 3.5 to 2 resulting in a nearly flat-topped filter profile. This demonstration represents a significant advance in integrated microwave photonics with potential applications in on-chip microwave signal processing for RADAR and analogue communications.

Single passband microwave photonic filter using continuous-time impulse response

A single passband microwave photonic signal processor based on continuous time impulse response that has high resolution, multiple-taps and baseband-free response as well as exhibiting a square-top passband and tunability, is presented. The design and synthesis of the frequency response are based on a full systematic model for single passband microwave photonic filters to account for arbitrary spectrum slice shapes, which for the first time investigates the combined effects from both the dispersion-induced carrier suppression effect and the RF decay effect due to the spectrum slice width, to enable the optimum design to be realized by utilizing the carrier suppression effect to improve the filter performance. Experimental results demonstrate a high order microwave filter showing high resolution single passband filtering as well as exhibiting reconfiguration, square-top passband and tunability, for the first time to our best knowledge.

Harmonic signal generation and frequency upconversion using selective sideband Brillouin amplification in single-mode fiber

Harmonic signal generation and frequency upconversion at millimeter-wave bands are experimentally demonstrated by using selective sideband Brillouin amplification induced by stimulated Brillouin scattering in a single-mode fiber. The harmonic signals and frequency upconverted signals are simultaneously generated by the beating of optical sidebands, one of which is Brillouin amplified. By using this method, we successfully demonstrate generation of third-harmonic millimeter waves at 32.55 GHz with f(LO) of 10.85 GHz and upconversion of 10 Mbps quadrature-shift keyed data at f(IF) of 1.55 GHz into a 30 GHz band with more than 17 dB RF power gain.