High-Performance Photonic Analog-to-Digital Converter and Low-Noise Mode-Locked Fiber Lasers

Abstract

This project demonstrates three photonic analog-digital converters (ADCs) for high-speed, real-time digitization of microwave signals. The methods consist of a highly parallel photonic ADC, a time-division multiplexed system based on electro-optical Sagnac interferometry, and an alloptical quantizer based upon distributed phase modulation. The core of many photonic ADC designs relies upon a low-noise, actively modelocked fiber laser that has been developed at NRL. Photonic sampling of microwave signals is investigated especially concerning development of a low-noise optical clock. Optimization and system post-processing is simulated and compared with experimental data. Finally, the low-noise optical clock was used in a four-way collaborative research effort where NRL excited and characterized high-speed, high-current photoconductive switches.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 26, 2003
Accession Number
ADA415094

Entities

People

  • Marc Currie

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplitude Modulation
  • Analyzers
  • Bandwidth
  • Communication Systems
  • Computational Science
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Electro-Optic Modulators
  • Frequency Combs
  • Laser Diodes
  • Laser Pulses
  • Lasers
  • Modulation
  • Modulators
  • Optical Fiber Lasers
  • Radio Frequency Amplifiers
  • Repetition Rate

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy