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Recent progresses on optical arbitrary waveform generation

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Abstract

This paper reviews recent progresses on optical arbitrary waveform generation (AWG) techniques, which could be used to break the speed and bandwidth bottlenecks of electronics technologies for waveform generation. The main enabling techniques for optically generating optical and microwave waveforms are introduced and reviewed in this paper, such as wavelength-to-time mapping techniques, space-to-time mapping techniques, temporal pulse shaping (TPS) system, optoelectronics oscillator (OEO), programmable optical filters, optical differentiator and integrator and versatile electro-optic modulation implementations. The main advantages and challenges of these optical AWG techniques are also discussed.

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Correspondence to Ming Li.

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Ming Li received the B.S. and M.E. degrees from the School of Physical Science and Technology of the Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China, in 2002 and 2005, respectively. He was awarded the Monbukagakusho scholarship from the Government of Japan in 2005 and involved in the research of the design of multichannel fiber Bragg grating and its applications to chromatic dispersion compensation and multiwavelength fiber laser in the Shizuoka University. He received the Ph.D. degree in the graduate school of science and technology from Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Japan, in the March of 2009.

In April of 2009, He joined the Microwave Photonics Research Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Jianping Yao, School of information Technology and Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada, as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. In June of 2011, He joined in the Ultrafast Optical Processing Group under the supervision of Prof. José Azaña, INRS-EMT, Montreal, Canada, as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. In February of 2013, he successfully got a high-level government-funded program (“Thousand Young Talents” program) in China. And then, he joined in the Institute of Semiconductor, Chinese Academy of Sciences as a Full Professor.

His research interests include fiber Bragg grating, optical MEMS sensing, ultrafast optical signal processing and arbitrary microwave waveform generation. He has published more than 75 articles in refereed journals, 55 papers in conference proceedings and 10 patents related to the above areas.

José Azaña received the Telecommunication Engineer degree (six years engineering program) and Ph.D. degree from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain, in 1997 and 2001, respectively. He completed part of his Ph.D. research at the University of Toronto (Canada) and University of California, Davis (USA).

From September 2001 to mid 2003, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). In 2003, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Montreal. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006. His research interests focus on fiber and integrated technologies for ultrafast optical signal processing and optical pulse shaping, for various applications, including optical telecommunications, ultrafast metrology, biomedical imaging and microwave waveform generation and manipulation. His research work has resulted in more than 150 publications in top scientific and engineering journals and leading conferences, including more than 80 publications in highimpact ISI journals and various (co-)invited presentations.

Prof. Azaña is a member of IEEE and the Optical Society of America (OSA). He has served as a Guest Editor of the only two monographs entirely devoted to the emerging area of Optical Signal Processing, published by EURASIP Journal of Applied Signal Processing (2005) and IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology (2006). Prof. Azaña was awarded with the XXII national prize for the “best doctoral thesis in data networks” from the Association of Telecommunication Engineers of Spain (2002) and with the “extraordinary prize for the best doctoral thesis” from his former university, UPM (2003). He is also the recipient of two Strategic Projects grants (2004 and 2007 competitions) by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Ninghua Zhu received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, in 1982, 1986, and 1990, respectively.

From 1990 to 1994, he worked with the Electronics Department of Zhongshan University, China, first as a Post-doctoral Fellow, and became an Associate Professor in 1992, and a Full Professor in 1994. From 1994 to 1995, he was a Research Fellow in the Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, China. From 1996 to 1998, he was with the Siemens Corporate Technology, Munich, Germany, as a Guest Scientist (Humboldt Research Fellow), where he worked on the microwave design and testing of external waveguide modulators and laser modules. He is currently a Professor with the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. In 1998, he was involved in the Hundred-Talent Program, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was selected by the National Natural Science Foundation of China as a Distinguished Young Scientist in 1998.

His research interests are in modeling and characterization of integrated optical waveguides and coplanar transmission lines, optimal design and testing of optoelectronics devices, microwave photonics, photonic integration circuits and optical fiber communications. His research work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the National High Technology Development Program (863), and the Major State Basic Research Program. He is the principal investigator of a) NSFC Science Fund for Creative Research Group “Semiconductor Integrated Optoelectronic Devices” (6M RMB); b) NSFC Key project “Basic research on high-speed semiconductor integrated optoelectronic devices” (10M RMB); c) 863 project “Photonic Integration Technology and Its System Applications” (80M RMB).

Jianping Yao (M’99-SM’01-F’12) is a Professor and University Research Chair in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Université de Toulon, Toulon, France, in December 1997. He joined the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as an Assistant Professor in 1999. In December 2001, he joined the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, as an Assistant Professor, where he became an Associate Professor in 2003, and a Full Professor in 2006. He was appointed University Research Chair in Microwave Photonics in 2007. From July 2007 to June 2010, he was the Director of the Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was re-appointed Director of the Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2013.

Prof. Yao has authored or co-authored more than 450 research papers (H-index: 45), including more than 260 papers in peerreviewed journals and 190 papers in conference proceedings. Prof. Yao is a Topical Editor for Optics Letters, and serves on the Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. He was as a guest co-editor for the Focus Issue on Microwave Photonics in Optics Express in 2013 and a Feature Issue on Microwave Photonics in Photonics Research in 2014. Prof. Yao is a Chair of numerous international conferences, symposia, and workshops, including the Vice Technical Program Committee (TPC) Chair of the IEEE Microwave Photonics Conference in 2007, TPC Co-Chair of the Asia-Pacific Microwave Photonics Conference in 2009 and 2010.

Prof. Yao is a registered Professional Engineer of Ontario. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Optical Society of America (OSA), and the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE).

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Li, M., Azaña, J., Zhu, N. et al. Recent progresses on optical arbitrary waveform generation. Front. Optoelectron. 7, 359–375 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-014-0470-y

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