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A single-longitudinal-mode narrow-linewidth fiber ring laser with stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) assisted parity-time (PT) symmetry for mode selection in a single fiber loop is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. When an optical pump is launched into the fiber loop along one direction, an SBS gain for the Stokes light along the opposite direction is produced. For two light waves at the Stokes frequency propagating along the two opposite directions, one will have a net gain and the other will have a net loss. By incorporating a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with partial reflection in the loop, mutual coupling between the two counterpropagating Stokes light waves is achieved. The SBS gain can be controlled by tuning the angle between the polarization directions of the pump and the Stokes light waves through a polarization controller (PC). Once the gain and loss coefficients between the two counterpropagating light waves are controlled to be identical in magnitude, and that the gain coefficient is greater than the coupling coefficient caused by the FBG, PT symmetry breaking is achieved, making the mainmode to sidemode ratio highly enhanced, single mode lasing is thus achieved. The approach is evaluated experimentally. For a fiber ring laser with a cavity length of 8.02 km, single-mode lasing with a narrow 3-dB linewidth of 368 Hz and a sidemode suppression ratio of around 33 dB is demonstrated. The wavelength tunable range from 1550.02 to 1550.18 nm is also demonstrated.

A broadband photonic-assisted microwave receiver with high cross-channel interference suppression and image rejection is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. At the input of the microwave receiver, a microwave signal is injected into an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO), which functions as a local oscillator (LO) to generate a low-phase noise LO signal as well as a photonic-assisted mixer to down-convert the input microwave signal to the intermediate frequency (IF). A microwave photonic filter (MPF), realized by the joint operation of a phase modulator (PM) in the OEO and a Fabry-Perot laser diode (FPLD), is used as a narrowband filter to select the IF signal. Thanks to the wide bandwidth of the photonic-assisted mixer and the wide frequency tunable range of the OEO, the microwave receiver can support broadband operation. The high cross-channel interference suppression and image rejection are enabled by the narrowband MPF. The system is evaluated experimentally. A broadband operation from 11.27 to 20.85 GHz is demonstrated. For a multi-channel microwave signal with a channel spacing of 2 GHz, a cross-channel interference suppression ratio of 21.95 dB and an image rejection ratio of 21.51 dB are realized. The spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of the receiver is also measured to be 98.25 dB·Hz2/3. The performance of the microwave receiver for multi-channel communications is also experimentally evaluated.

Self-interference (SI) due to signal leakage from a local transmitter is an issue in an in-band full-duplex (IBFD) transmission system, which would cause severe distortions to a receiving signal of interest (SOI). By superimposing a local reference signal with the same amplitude and opposite phase, the SI signal can be fully canceled. However, as the manipulation of the reference signal is usually operated manually, it is difficult to ensure a high speed and high accurate cancellation. To overcome this problem, a real-time adaptive optical SI cancellation (RTA-OSIC) scheme using a SARSA(λ) reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The proposed RTA-OSIC scheme can automatically adjust the amplitude and phase of a reference signal by adjusting a variable optical attenuator (VOA) and a variable optical delay line (VODL) achieved through an adaptive feedback signal, which is generated by evaluating the quality of the received SOI. To verify the feasibility of the proposed scheme, a 5 GHz 16QAM OFDM IBFD transmission experiment is demonstrated. By using the proposed RTA-OSIC scheme, for an SOI at three different bandwidths of 200, 400, and 800 MHz, the signal can be adaptively and correctly recovered within 8 time periods (TPs), which is the required time of a single adaptive control step. The cancellation depth for the SOI with a bandwidth of 800 MHz is 20.18 dB. The short- and long-term stability of the proposed RTA-OSIC scheme is also evaluated. The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach could be a promising solution for real-time adaptive SI cancellation in future IBFD transmission systems.

A microwave photonic link to transmit four independent microwave vector signals modulated on a single optical carrier based on coherent detection and digital signal processing (DSP) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. At the transmitter, a continuous-wave (CW) light wave is modulated by four independent microwave vector signals with an identical center microwave frequency at a dual-polarization dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DP-DDMZM), to generate four intensity-modulated optical signals, with two signals sharing one of the two orthogonal polarization states. After transmission over a single-mode fiber (SMF), the optical signals are applied to a polarization- and phase- diversity coherent receiver to which a light wave from a second laser source as a local oscillator (LO) is also applied. To eliminate the joint phase noise and the unstable offset frequency from the transmitter and the LO laser sources and to perform polarization demultiplexing, a digital noise cancellation algorithm and a polarization demultiplexing algorithm are developed. The proposed approach is evaluated experimentally. For four independent 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) microwave vector signals at 4 GHz with a symbol rate of 0.5 GSymbol/s, error-free transmission over a 9-km SMF is achieved when the received optical power at the coherent receiver is higher than -21 dBm with forward error correction (FEC).

We demonstrate an approach to ultra-short pulse train generation with a low time jitter based on pulse compression of a frequency comb generated by a dual-loop optoelectronic oscillator (OEO). The proposed dual-loop OEO consists of two feedback loops, with one having a long loop length and the other a short loop length. In the long loop, a phase modulator (PM) cascaded with a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) are employed, and in the short loop, only the MZM is included. Due to the Vernier effect, the use of the dual-loop structure can facilitate mode selection to generate a single-frequency microwave carrier with multiple optical sidebands corresponding to an optical comb. By adjusting the phase relationship between the optical sidebands using a dispersion compensating fiber (DCF), a stable optical pulse train is generated. Thanks to the low phase noise nature of an OEO, the generated pulse train has a low time jitter. The proposed approach is evaluated experimentally. A pulse train with a repetition frequency of 2.023 GHz and a pulse width of 40 ps is generated. The single-sideband (SSB) phase noise of the carrier frequency generated by the OEO is measured to be −118 dBc/Hz at a 10-kHz offset frequency, corresponding to a time jitter of the pulse train of 391.2 fs. The phase noise can be further reduced if an active cavity stabilization mechanism is adopted, enabling further reduction in the time jitter to the order of tens of femtoseconds.

An optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with improved sideband suppression by joint use of the spectral Vernier effect and parity-time (PT) symmetry is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The spectral Vernier effect is implemented using two mutually coupled loops with different loop lengths, to increase the effective free spectral range (FSR). To further increase the mode selection capability to ensure stable single-frequency oscillation with an increased sidemode suppression ratio (SMSR), PT symmetry is implemented, in which the two mutually coupled loops are controlled with balanced gain and loss. Thanks to the combined effects, stable single-mode oscillation with a significantly increased SMSR is achieved. The proposed OEO is studied theoretically and evaluated experimentally. The results show that for a generated microwave signal at 10 GHz, the SMSR is 67.68 dB, which is increased by 11.20 dB or 26.05 dB, when using only the spectral Vernier effect or only the PT symmetry. Thanks to the long length of the longer loop, good phase noise performance is still maintained. The measurement shows that a phase noise as low as -124.5 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 10 kHz is achieved.

A photonic approach to generate a linearly chirped microwave waveform (LCMW) with an ultra-long temporal duration is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The microwave waveform generation is achieved based on spectral-shaping and wavelength-to-time (SS-WTT) mapping by using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and a frequency-shifting dispersive loop (FSDL), respectively. To make the generated microwave waveform have an ultra-long temporal duration, the FSDL is operating to allow a spectrally shaped optical pulse to recirculate in a dispersive loop multiple times with a low propagating loss, to generate a microwave waveform with a temporal duration that is more than one order of magnitude longer than that of a microwave waveform generated using a dispersive element without recirculation. To generate a LCMW, the spectral shaper is configured to have a free spectral range (FSR) that is linearly increasing or decreasing with optical wavelength. The proposed approach is experimentally demonstrated. Two LCMWs, by allowing an optical pulse recirculating in the FSDL for three and seven round trips, tripled and septupled temporal durations of 64 and 182 ns are generated. The generation of two LCMWs with ultra-long temporal durations of 370 ns and 450 ns are also demonstrated.

We propose and validate experimentally a time-delay to intensity mapping process based on second-order optical integrators. This mapping provides dynamic control of the intensity modulation profile of a waveform based on a purely passive and linear process. In particular, we can realize linear intensity control by tuning the time-delay between two optical pulses launched into a second-order optical integrator. We suggest and experimentally prove the use of this mapping process for reconfigurable optical arbitrary waveform generation.

A wavelength-tunable single-frequency fiber laser based on the spectral narrowing effect in a nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifier (NL-SOA) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The single-frequency operation is achieved based on the spectral narrowing effect resulted from the inverse four-wave mixing in a NL-SOA. By incorporating the NL-SOA in the fiber laser cavity, single-frequency lasing is achieved. The lasing frequency can be tuned by tuning the center wavelength of a tunable filter (TF) incorporated in the laser cavity. The proposed wavelength-tunable single-frequency fiber laser is experimentally evaluated. Stable single-frequency oscillation with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) as high as 55 dB and a spectral linewidth of less than 10.1 kHz over a wavelength tuning range of as wide as 48 nm is demonstrated.

Microwave Photonics, a symbiotic field of research that brings together the worlds of optics and radio frequency is currently facing several challenges in its transition from a niche to a truly widespread technology essential to support the ever-increasing values for speed, bandwidth, processing capability and dynamic range that will be required in next generation hybrid access networks. We outline these challenges, which are the subject of the contributions to this focus issue.

We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first realization of a multi-wavelength distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor laser array with an equivalent chirped grating profile based on equivalent chirp technology. All the lasers in the laser array have an identical grating period with an equivalent chirped grating structure, which are realized by nonuniform sampling of the gratings. Different wavelengths are achieved by changing the sampling functions. A multi-wavelength DFB semiconductor laser array is fabricated and the lasing performance is evaluated. The results show that the equivalent chirp technology is an effective solution for monolithic integration of a multi-wavelength laser array with potential for large volume fabrication.

Wavelength reuse in a bidirectional UWB over fiber system using a polarization modulator (PolM) and an electro-absorption modulator (EAM) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Since the PolM functions as a special phase modulator that supports phase modulation along the two principal axes with opposite modulation indices and the EAM is a polarization-independent component, the signals due to the phase-modulation to intensity-modulation (PM-IM) conversion along the two orthogonal directions in the upstream link will be complementary and cancelled out, thus the impact of the downstream signal to the upstream transmission due to the PM-IM conversion is fully eliminated. Error-free bidirectional transmission of a 1.25-Gbps UWB signal over 17 km single-mode fiber (SMF) is demonstrated. A power penalty due to the wavelength reuse for upstream transmission is measured to be as low as 0.2 dB.

The coupling coefficients of the cladding-mode resonances of a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) are linearly increasing or decreasing in different wavelength regions. Based on the Kramers-Kronig relations, when the coupling coefficients are linearly increasing, the phase shifts are linearly increasing correspondingly. This feature is employed, for the first time, for the implementation of a multi-tap continuously tunable microwave photonic filter with complex coefficients by using a TFBG. By locating the optical carriers of single-sideband-modulated signals at the cladding-mode resonances of the TFBG which has linearly increasing depths, linearly increasing phase shifts are introduced to the optical carriers. By beating the optical carriers with the single sidebands, the phase shifts are translated to the microwave signals, and thus complex coefficients with the required linearly increasing phase shifts are generated. The tunability of the complex coefficients is realized by optically pumping the TFBG which is written in an erbium/ytterbium (Er/Yb) co-doped fiber. A proof-of-concept experiment is performed; a three- and four-tap filter with a frequency tunable range of 150 and 120 MHz, respectively, are demonstrated.

A microwave photonic link (MPL) with simultaneous suppression of the even-order and third-order distortions using a polarization modulator (PolM), an optical bandpass filter (OBPF), and a balanced photodetector (BPD) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The even-order distortions are suppressed by utilizing orthogonal polarization modulation based on the PolM and balanced differential detection based on the BPD. The third-order distortions (IMD3) are suppressed by optimizing the spectral response of the OBPF with an optimal power ratio between the optical carrier and the sidebands of the phase-modulated signals from the PolM. Since the suppression of the IMD3 is achieved when the MPL is optimized for even-order distortion suppression, the proposed MPL can operate with simultaneous suppression of the even-order and third-order distortions. The proposed MPL is analyzed theoretically and is verified by an experiment. For a two-tone RF signal of fsub1/sub= 10 GHz and fsub2/sub= 19.95 GHz, the spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR2) is enhanced by 23.4 dB for the second harmonic (2fsub1/sub), and 29.1 and 27.6 dB for the second intermodulation (fsub2/sub-fsub1/suband fsub1/sub+ fsub2/sub), as compared with a conventional MPL. For a two-tone RF signal of fsub1/sub= 9.95 GHz and fsub2/sub= 10 GHz, the SFDR3 is increased by 13.1 dB as compared with a conventional MPL.

A simple scheme to simultaneously generate an on-off keying or bi-phase modulation (BPM) impulse radio ultra wideband (IR-UWB) signal and a baseband wired signal in the optical domain using a dual-drive modulator is proposed and demonstrated. Although the two signals have spectral overlap in the optical spectrum, they are located at different frequency bands when converted to electrical signals at a photodetector (PD), which can be well separated by an electrical filter. An experiment is carried out. Eye diagrams, electrical spectra and BER measurements show that the co-channel interference between the UWB and the wired signals is small for a single-channel 36-km fiber link to provide 1.25-Gb/s UWB wireless and 1.25-Gb/s baseband wired services. The inter-channel interference is also small and negligible when the link is operated together with two other 1.25 Gb/s baseband wired links, which demonstrates that a conventional WDM-PON can be upgraded to provide additional UWB services without affecting the existing services by modifying the modulators in the center office and inserting UWB antennas in the optical network units.

A novel approach to generating an optical frequency comb based on repeated frequency shifting is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The frequency shifting is implemented via optical carrier suppression and single-sideband modulation using two Mach-Zehnder modulators in conjunction with a bidirectional asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer with wavelength-shifted transmission spectra along the opposite directions. A theoretical analysis is performed, which is confirmed by a proof-of-concept experiment. A stable optical comb covering a spectral range of 0.18 THz is generated.

In this paper, a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is proposed to be used in the optimization of the spot pattern for the indoor diffuse optical wireless network application. The channel response is analyzed using conventional grid-based patterns and a field of view (FOV) of 30 degrees is found to give a good performance balance in the uniformity of the received power distribution and multipath dispersion. Using the algorithm to determine the spot pattern for the minimum standard deviation of the received power, an improvement of more than 85% is realized. To optimize the spot pattern at 30 degrees FOV, a merit function is incorporated into the algorithm for two parameters, and the SA algorithm is run to obtain optimized spot patterns for both a 4.5m and 6m extent of the spot pattern. Various weights are used, and a performance improvement of 39% and 78% is observed for the 4.5m and 6m spot pattern sizes respectively which shows that the approach can be used to effectively optimize the spot pattern in the indoor optical wireless application.

A novel all-optical microwave filter with a frequency response equivalent to a bandpass filter is presented. An electro-optic phase modulator combined with a dispersive device is employed to eliminate the baseband resonance of a typical lowpass filter. A two-tap bandpass transversal microwave filter with a null-to-null bandwidth of 8.8 GHz and a 35-dB notch rejection level is demonstrated.

An ultrafast all-optical temporal integrator is experimentally demonstrated. The demonstrated integrator is based on a very simple and practical solution only requiring the use of a widely available all-fiber passive component, namely a reflection uniform fiber Bragg grating (FBG). This design allows overcoming the severe speed (bandwidth) limitations of the previously demonstrated photonic integrator designs. We demonstrate temporal integration of a variety of ultrafast optical waveforms, including Gaussian, odd-symmetry Hermite Gaussian, and (odd-)symmetry double pulses, with temporal features as fast as ~6-ps, which is about one order of magnitude faster than in previous photonic integration demonstrations. The developed device is potentially interesting for a multitude of applications in all-optical computing and information processing, ultrahigh-speed optical communications, ultrafast pulse (de-)coding, shaping and metrology.

A novel photonic analog-to-digital conversion scheme implemented using an array of Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) with identical half-wave voltages is proposed and demonstrated. It is different from the scheme proposed by Taylor where the MZMs should have geometrically scaled half-wave voltages; the proposed scheme here uses MZMs with identical half-wave voltages, which eliminates the need for the MZMs to have very low half-wave voltages. By properly biasing the MZMs, the transfer functions of the MZMs are laterally shifted, which leads to the generation of a linear binary code to represent the analog input signal. The use of the MZMs with identical half-wave voltages simplifies greatly the design and implementation, which provides a high potential for integration. A proof-of-concept experiment for analog-to-digital conversion with a quantization level of 16 is demonstrated.

A new technique to implement a photonic microwave delay-line filter based on nonuniform tap spacing with arbitrary bandpass response is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Being different from a regular photonic microwave delay-line filter where the taps are uniformly spaced, the proposed filter in this paper has nonuniformly-spaced taps. The key feature of this technique is that a photonics microwave delay-line filter with arbitrary bandpass response can be realized with only positive taps via nonuniform tap spacing. The use of the proposed technique to implement a flat-top bandpass filter is experimentally demonstrated.

Microwave photonics (MWP) is an emerging filed in which photonic technologies are employed to enable and enhance functionalities in microwave systems which are usually very challenging to fulfill directly in the microwave domain. Various photonic devices have been used to achieve the functions. A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is one of the key components in microwave photonics systems due to its unique features such as flexible spectral characteristics, low loss, light weight, compact footprint, and inherent compatibility with other fiber-optic devices. In this paper, we discuss the recent development in employing FBGs for various microwave photonics subsystems, with an emphasis on subsystems for microwave photonic signal processing and microwave arbitrary waveform generation. The limitations and potential solutions are also discussed.

A novel microwave photonic link (MPL) with an improved spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) based on a bidirectional use of a polarization modulator (PolM) in a Sagnac loop is proposed and demonstrated. The PolM in the loop functions, in conjunction with a polarization controller and a polarization beam combiner, as a Mach Zehnder modulator (MZM), which only modulates the incident light wave along the clockwise direction, leaving the counter-clockwise light wave unmodulated due to the velocity mismatch. Two clockwise intensity-modulated signals along two paths (Path 1 and Path 2) are generated, with one (Path 2) combined with the non-modulated light wave from the counter-clockwise direction to suppress part of the optical carrier. By controlling the power relationship between the two paths, the third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) can be fully suppressed, and thus an MPL with improved dynamic range is achieved. A theoretical analysis is presented, which is validated by an experiment. The IMD3 can be suppressed by 50 dB, giving an improvement in SFDR of 16 dB.

A novel approach to implementing a wideband microwave photonic phase shifter by a joint use of a polarization modulator (PolM) and a polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating (PM-FBG) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A microwave signal to be phase shifted is applied to the PolM. Two phase-modulated signals along the two principal axes of the PolM are generated and sent to the PM-FBG. The phase-modulated signals have a static but complementary phase shift introduced by the dc bias applied to the PolM. Due to the birefringence of the polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber, the PM-FBG has two spectrally separated and orthogonally polarized reflection bands. By employing the PM-FBG to reflect one first-order sideband along one polarization direction and one optical carrier along the other polarization direction, and send them back to the PolM, a second-time phase modulation is imposed to the sideband and the optical carrier. By sending the two signals to a polarizer and beating them at a photodetector, a phase shifted microwave signal is obtained. Since the PolM is used twice, a low dc bias voltage would lead to a large phase shift. A full 360° microwave photonic phase shifter over a frequency range of 30-40 GHz is experimentally demonstrated. The spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) of the phase shifter is also studied.

A continuously tunable microwave phase shifter based on slow and fast light effects in a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) written in an erbium/ytterbium (Er/Yb) co-doped fiber is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By optically pumping the TFBG, the magnitude and phase responses of the cladding mode resonances are changed, which is used to introduce a tunable phase shift to the optical carrier of a single-sideband modulated signal. The beating between the phase-shifted optical carrier and the sideband will generate a microwave signal with the phase shift from the optical carrier directly translated to the generated microwave signal. A tunable phase shifter with a tunable phase shift of 280° at a microwave frequency tunable from 24 to 36 GHz is experimentally demonstrated.

A high resolution optical vector network analyzer (OVNA) implemented based on a wideband and wavelength-tunable optical single-sideband (OSSB) modulator is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The OSSB modulation is achieved using a phase modulator and a tunable optical filter with a passband having two steep edges and a flat top. Wideband and wavelength-tunable OSSB modulation is achieved. The incorporation of the OSSB modulator into the OVNA is experimentally evaluated. The measurement of the magnitude and phase response of an ultra-narrow-band fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and that of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in a single-mode fiber is performed. A measurement resolution as high as 78 kHz is achieved.

A new technique to design an all-fiber temporal differentiator that has a large bandwidth and an arbitrary differentiation order is proposed and investigated. The proposed temporal differentiator is a special fiber Bragg grating (FBG) that is designed by controlling its magnitude and phase responses with the discrete layer peeling (DLP) method. There are three important features of this technique: 1) the temporal differentiator has an arbitrary magnitude response and a controllable bandwidth; 2) the temporal differentiator can be designed and fabricated with an arbitrary differentiation order that is realized in a single FBG; 3) the required maximum index modulation of the FBG-based differentiator is largely decreased by using a Gaussian windowing function. The use of the proposed technique to design temporal differentiators with a differentiation order up to the fourth and with a bandwidth up to 500 GHz is studied. A proof-of-concept experiment is then carried out. A first- and a second-order temporal differentiator with a bandwidth of 25 GHz are experimentally demonstrated.

A wavelength-switchable single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) incorporating a novel high-finesse ring filter is proposed and demonstrated. The ring filter consists of two optical couplers and a section of pumped erbium-doped fiber (EDF). Thanks to the gain generated by the EDF, the ring filter has spectral response with a high finesse. The incorporation of the ring filter leads to the suppression of undesirable modes in the dual-wavelength EDFL. An experiment is carried out. Two SLM wavelengths are generated. The side mode suppression ratio is greater than 50 dB. The wavelength spacing of the two wavelengths is tunable with a tuning step of approximately 10 GHz. A frequency switchable microwave signal from approximately 10 to approximately 40 GHz is thus generated by beating the two wavelengths at a photodetector (PD). The spectral width of the generated microwave signal is measured to be less than 5 kHz.

A novel wavelength-switchable single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) dual-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) implemented based on a sigma architecture that is composed of a ring loop and a linear standing wave arm is experimentally demonstrated. Gain competition that prevents stable dual-wavelength oscillation is effectively suppressed by placing the gain medium in the standing-wave arm and by introducing polarization hole burning (PHB) via polarization multiplexing of the two lasing wavelengths in the ring loop. The SLM operation is guaranteed by an ultranarrow Fabry- Perot filter (FPF) introduced by absorption saturation in an unpumped erbium-doped fiber (EDF) and the gain saturation in the gain medium. In addition, the ring cavity forms a Lyot filter for each wavelength. Thus, wavelength switching is achieved by simply adjusting the polarization state of either wavelength. By beating the two SLM wavelengths at a photodetector (PD), a microwave signal with a frequency tunable from approximately 10 to approximately 50 GHz is experimentally generated.

A novel technique to implement a Bragg grating with multi-channel and high channel-count response based on nonuniform amplitude-only sampling is proposed. Thanks to the nonuniform sampling, a sophisticated phase modulation for the generation of multi-channel spectral response can be equivalently achieved, while the pitch of the Bragg grating is maintained uniform. The principle is presented. Two design examples with two Bragg gratings for multi-channel filtering and for multi-channel chromatic dispersion compensation are provided.

A high speed 2x2 electro-optic switch using a polarization modulator (PolM) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed switch, two linearly polarized input lightwaves with orthogonal polarization directions are sent to the PolM which is connected to a polarization beam splitter (PBS). When a switching signal is applied to the PolM, the polarization directions of the two lightwaves at the output of PolM will exchange. Consequently, the lightwaves at the two output ports of the PBS would be switched, a 2x2 switch is thus realized. An optical switch with a crosstalk lower than -35 dB and a switching time less than 25 ps is experimentally demonstrated. The performance of the switch is also experimentally investigated by studying the bit error rates and eye diagrams. A technique to achieve polarization independent operation is also proposed and discussed.

Optically switchable Ultra-Wideband (UWB) monocycle and doublet pulse generation using an optically reconfigurable photonic microwave delay-line filter is proposed and demonstrated. The microwave filter can be reconfigured as a two- or three-tap microwave filter with coefficients of (1, -1) or (1, -2, 1). The function of the two- or three-tap microwave filter is equivalent to an operation of a first- or second-order difference, which can be approximated as a first- or second-order derivative. When a Gaussian pulse is inputted to the two- or three-tap microwave delay-line filter, a Gaussian monocycle or doublet pulse is generated. The proposed photonic microwave delay-line filter is implemented using a polarization modulator (PolM), a length of polarization maintaining fiber (PMF), and a balanced photo-detector (BPD). In the experiment, Gaussian monocycle and doublet pulses with a fractional bandwidth of about 170% and 130% are generated. The switchability of the proposed UWB pulse generator in pulse shape and polarity is also experimentally demonstrated.

Homogeneous line broadening suppression and supermode noise reduction in a multiwavelength actively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber ring laser are investigated. By incorporating a semiconductor optical amplifier that is biased to operate just above the transparent point, the gain spectral hole burning of the erbium-doped fiber ring laser is effectively suppressed and the supermode noise is significantly reduced. Active mode locking of 8 wavelengths at room temperature with improved noise figure is demonstrated.