Photonic time-frequency filter based on the software-defined time-frequency prism

Abstract

We propose a microwave photonic 2D time-frequency filter based on a photonic time-frequency prism. A time-varying frequency response is realized by deviating the passband of a 1D ordinary frequency filter in the 2D time-frequency plane. The proposed time-frequency filter features highly reconfigurable frequency-sweeping speed and bandwidth, thanks to the software-defined photonic time-frequency prism. With the proposed technique, separation of multiple linear and nonlinear chirp signals with overlapped spectra is experimentally demonstrated.