Tunable Photonic Microwave Band-pass Filter with High-resolution Using XGM Effect of an RSOA

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a simple tunable photonic microwave band-pass filter with high resolution using a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) and an optical time-delay line. The RSOA is used as a gain medium for generating cross-gain modulation (XGM) effect as well as an optical source. The optical source provides narrow spectral width by self-injection locking the RSOA in conjunction with a partial reflection filter with specific center wavelength. Then, when the RSOA is operated in the saturation region and the modulated recursive signal is injected into the RSOA, the recursive signal is inversely copied to the injection locked optical source due to the XGM effect. Also, the tunability of the passband of the proposed microwave filter is shown by controlling an optical time-delay line in a recursive loop.