ABSTRACT
We demonstrate a high-resolution technique to measure the optical magnitude and phase responses of fiber gratings. The technique employs single-sideband modulation of an optical source and has spectral resolution in the hertz regime. The technique is demonstrated by measurement of the phase ripples of unapodized and apodized chirped gratings as well as the transmission spectrum of a pi-phase-shifted grating. Although it is demonstrated on fiber gratings, the technique is applicable to any optical device.
ABSTRACT
We report an experimental demonstration of a photonic microwave shifter using a highly chirped mode-locked fiber laser. The system is based on dispersive compression or expansion of highly chirped optical pulses that are amplitude modulated by the microwave signal. Using this technique, we demonstrated frequency shifting of a microwave signal from 10 GHz down to 5 GHz and up to 25 GHz.
ABSTRACT
We develop a method for forming squint-free wideband nulls in the antenna pattern of an ultrawideband array antenna. The technique uses an optical dispersive-prism beam former to provide time-delayed microwave signals to each antenna element for forming a squint-free main beam. The amplitude-modulated optical carrier is propagated through a set of optical links. Each link feeds an array element and includes an amount of dispersion proportional to element position. Tuning the wavelength of the optical carrier controls the microwave signal's arrival-time delay gradient across the array. A dispersive-prism tapped delay-line microwave filter is used to frequency shape a nulling signal. The wideband nulls do not significantly distort the main beam and are steered independently of the main beam. The technique is applied to sidelobe nulling for a transmitter and for jammer suppression for a receiver array.
ABSTRACT
We present and analyze a hardware-optimized technique that provides true-time-delay steering for broadband two-dimensional array-antenna applications. The technique improves on previous approaches by the reduction of the two-dimensional beam-former architecture complexity, by the provision of flexibility in time-delay unit selection, and by the potential reduction of optical loss. The technique relies on a one-dimensional bank of time-delay units to form the required time-delay gradient for proper off-broadside angle steering. A reconfigurable optical interconnection fabric is used to reassign dynamically the connections between the time-delay units and individual array elements of a two-dimensional array to effect the proper steering angle along the off-broadside cone.
