Coherent photonic radio frequency channelization based on dual coherent optical frequency combs and stimulated Brillouin scattering

Coherent photonic radio frequency (RF) channelization based on dual coherent optical frequency combs (OFCs) and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is proposed and demonstrated. By using the dual OFCs to multicast a wideband RF signal and form a series of SBS gain responses simultaneously, the frequency components of the wideband RF signal are sliced into a number of parallel parts and converted into signals with the same center frequency. The bandwidth of each frequency slice is determined by the gain bandwidth of the SBS (tens of megahertz), and all the information in the RF signal is retained after the channelization. The channelization fineness can be tuned by adjusting the two OFCs' free spectral ranges. An experiment is carried out. Photonic RF channelization with channel spacing of 80 MHz and a crosstalk suppression of more than 19.52 dB is realized. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)