Switchable optical UWB monocycle and doublet generation using a reconfigurable photonic microwave delay-line filter

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 (Po1M), 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. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.