Hybrid optical–digital signal processing applied to an optimal nonlinear phase estimator

An electrooptical realization of an optimal phase estimator for phase modulated communication signals is described in this work. The realization uses an electrooptical processor to perform a 1-D convolution in a 2-D space and a computer to complete the calculations. The processor is a realization of the time domain recursive nonlinear filter. This paper describes the nonlinear filter theory, the electrooptical realization, and the performance of the processor.