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Journal of Lightwave Technology

Optical quantization of microwave signals via distributed phase Modulation

Marc Currie

Published Feb 1, 2005• 30 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical phase modulators and a continuous-wave laser diode were used to quantize microwave signals with frequencies up to 25 GHz. A 2- and 3-b optical quantizer and photonic analog-to-digital converter are demonstrated. The quantizer system is primarily limited in the optical domain by the speed of the phase modulators. Converting the optical binary data into the electrical domain limits the data acquisition to the electronic readout circuitry.

DOI
10.1109/jlt.2004.838864

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Optical phase modulators and a continuous-wave laser diode were used to quantize microwave signals with frequencies up to 25 GHz. A 2- and 3-b optical quantizer and photonic analog-to-digital converter are demonstrated. The quantizer system is primarily limited in the optical domain by the speed of the phase modulators. Converting the optical binary data into the electrical domain limits the data acquisition to the electronic readout circuitry.
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A novel photonic approach to simultaneously implement frequency measurement and signal separation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for pulsed and continuous-wave (CW) microwave signals. In this approach, a light wave is externally modulated with carrier suppressed by a pulsed or CW microwave signal to be measured, and then sent to two optical complementary filters to perform frequency-to-amplitude mapping. The outputs of the two filters are detected by low-speed photodetectors, low-frequency alternating currency (AC) electronic component and direct current (DC) one being generated. The carrier frequency of the pulsed microwave signal can be estimated by monitoring the power of the AC component, while the frequency of the CW microwave signal is discriminated from the power of the DC component, with the frequency measurement and the signal separation simultaneously realized. In proof-of-concept experiments, within the frequency range from 5 to 20 GHz, measurement errors less than ±0.1, ±0.11 , or ±0.13 GHz are achieved for a pulsed signal with pulse repetition frequency of 0.25, 0.5, or 1 MHz, whereas the errors less than ±0.08 GHz are derived for a CW signal.
Photons at microwave and optical frequencies are principal carriers for quantum information. While microwave photons can be effectively controlled at the local circuit level, optical photons can propagate over long distances. High-fidelity conversion between microwave and optical photons will allow the distribution of quantum states across different quantum technology nodes and enhance the scalability of hybrid quantum systems toward a future “Quantum Internet.” Despite a frequency difference of five orders of magnitude, there has been significant progress recently toward the transfer between microwave and optical photons with steadily improved efficiency in a coherent and bidirectional manner. In this review, we summarize this progress, emphasizing integrated device approaches, and provide a perspective for device implementation that enables quantum state transfer and entanglement distribution across microwave and optical domains.
Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are electronic circuits that convert an electrical signal from the analog domain to the digital domain of binary numbers, which can then be processed by computers. A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) functions in the reverse direction, converting a sequence of binary numbers into a continuous electrical signal, and high-performance superconducting DACs are still being developed. A time-to-digital converter (TDC) digitizes time and resembles in some ways ADCs. Superconducting TDCs are simpler than ADCs and are being developed mostly for integration with cryogenic sensor arrays. Quantization refers to the selection of a discrete value for the magnitude when the signal is sampled, and is carried out by a quantizer. A high sampling rate with good linearity is necessary for high fidelity to the desired signal, and a DAC can be characterized by parameters of SNR and SFDR in much the same way as an ADC.