title: Fully programmable spectrum sliced chirped microwave photonic filter.
abstract: A novel chirped microwave photonic filter (MPF) capable of achieving a large radio frequency (RF) group delay slope and a single passband response free from high frequency fading is presented. The design is based upon a Fourier domain optical processor (FD-OP) and a single sideband modulator. The FD-OP is utilized to generate both constant time delay to tune the filter and first order dispersion to induce the RF chirp, enabling full software control of the MPF without the need for manual adjustment. An optimized optical parameter region based on a large optical bandwidth >750 GHz and low slicing dispersion < ± 1 ps/nm is introduced, with this technique greatly improving the RF properties including the group delay slope magnitude and passband noise. Experimental results confirm that the structure simultaneously achieves a large in-band RF chirp of -4.2 ns/GHz, centre frequency invariant tuning and independent reconfiguration of the RF amplitude and phase response. Finally, a stochastic study of the device passband noise performance under tuning and reconfiguration is presented, indicating a low passband noise <-120 dB/Hz.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Leitner
authors.forename: Xiaoke
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.forename: Liwei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Thomas X H
authors.initials: TX
authors.lastname: Huang