Tunable fractional-order differentiator using an electrically tuned silicon-on-isolator Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a tunable fractional order photonic differentiator using an on-chip electrically tuned Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure. The phase shift at the resonant frequency of the MZI varies when applying different voltages, which can implement the fractional differentiation. Due to the large 3-dB bandwidth of the MZI, the differentiator is expected to have an operation bandwidth of several hundred GHz. The proposed fractional order differentiator is demonstrated experimentally. A Gaussian-like pulse with a bandwidth of about 200 GHz is temporally differentiated with a tunable order range from 0.83 to 1.03.

Tunable fractional-order photonic differentiator using a distributed feedback semiconductor optical amplifier

“…The possible applications encompass optical computing, optical information processing, ultrafast signal generation, optical pulse shaping, dark soliton detection, and Hermite-Gaussian waveforms generation. Recently, the fractional-order differentiator has been implemented with different methods, such as tilted FBG, 15 asymmetrical phase-shifted FBG, 16 silicon-on-isolator (SOI) microring resonator (MMR) with a multimode interferometer coupler, 17 electrically tuned SOI Mach-Zehnder interferometer, 18 and a silicon MMR based on inverse Raman scattering. Numerous techniques have been proposed to implement integer-order differentiators, including the use of a phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating (FBG), 5-7 silicon microring resonators, [8][9][10] integrated sidewall phase-shifted Bragg grating, 11,12 or a modulation in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA).…”

Terahertz-bandwidth photonic temporal differentiator based on a silicon-on-isolator directional coupler

“…The reason may be attributed to the limited measurement resolution and sensitivity of the OSO [10]. In order to align the laser wavelength to the central spectral notch, we first observe the silicon DC spectral notch and fix it [20] as shown in Fig. 7.…”

A comprehensive theoretical model for on-chip microring-based photonic fractional differentiators

“…The temporal photonic differentiator is a basic element which can implement the time derivative of the complex envelope of an input optical pulse. It has wide applications in pulse characterization, ultra-fast signal generation, and ultra-high-speed coding 3 4 5 6 7 8 . A number of schemes have been proposed to realize the all-optical temporal differentiation, among which the on-chip microring resonator (MR) has been considered as a promising candidate because of its compactness, maturity in fabrication, and opto-electronic integration 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 .…”