Friso Schlottau

Spectral hole burning for wideband, high-resolution radio-frequency spectrum analysis

We present experimental results for what is to our knowledge the first spectral-hole-burning based rf spectrum analyzer to cover 10 GHz of rf analysis bandwidth. The rf signal of interest is modulated onto an optical carrier, and the resultant optical sidebands are burned into the inhomogeneously broadened absorption band of a Tm3+:YAG crystal. At the same time a second, frequency-swept laser reads out the absorption profile, which is a double-sideband replica of the rf spectrum, and thus the rf spectrum can be deduced after spectral calibration of the nonlinear readout chirp. This initial demonstration shows spectral analysis covering 10 GHz of bandwidth with >5500 spectral channels and provides 43 dB of dynamic range.

Broadband radio-frequency spectrum analysis in spectral-hole-burning media

We demonstrate a 20 GHz spectrum analyzer with 1 MHz resolution and >40 dB dynamic range using spectral-hole-burning (SHB) crystals, which are cryogenically cooled crystal hosts lightly doped with rare-earth ions. We modulate a rf signal onto an optical carrier using an electro-optic intensity modulator to produce a signal beam modulated with upper and lower rf sidebands. Illuminating SHB crystals with modulated beams excites only those ions resonant with corresponding modulation frequencies, leaving holes in the crystals absorption profile that mimic the modulation power spectrum and persist for up to 10 ms. We determine the spectral hole locations by probing the crystal with a chirped laser and detecting the transmitted intensity. The transmitted intensity is a blurred-out copy of the power spectrum of the original illumination as mapped into a time-varying signal. Scaling the time series associated with the transmitted intensity by the instantaneous chirp rate yields the modulated beams rf power spectrum. The homogeneous linewidth of the rare-earth ions, which can be <100 kHz at cryogenic temperatures, limits the fundamental spectral resolution, while the mediums inhomogeneous linewidth, which can be >20 GHz, determines the spectral bandwidth.

Ultrawideband coherent noise lidar range-Doppler imaging and signal processing by use of spatial-spectral holography in inhomogeneously broadened absorbers

We introduce a new approach to coherent lidar range-Doppler sensing by utilizing random-noise illuminating waveforms and a quantum-optical, parallel sensor based on spatial-spectral holography (SSH) in a cryogenically cooled inhomogeneously broadened absorber (IBA) crystal. Interference between a reference signal and the lidar return in the spectrally selective absorption band of the IBA is used to sense the lidar returns and perform the front-end range-correlation signal processing. Modulating the reference by an array of Doppler compensating frequency shifts enables multichannel Doppler filtering. This SSH sensor performs much of the postdetection signal processing, increases the lidar system sensitivity through range-correlation gain before detection, and is capable of not only Doppler processing but also parallel multibeam reception using the high-spatial resolution of the IBA crystals. This approach permits the use of ultrawideband, high-power, random-noise, cw lasers as ranging waveforms in lidar systems instead of highly stabilized, injection-seeded, and amplified pulsed or modulated laser sources as required by most conventional coherent lidar systems. The capabilities of the IBA media for many tens of gigahertz bandwidth and resolution in the 30-300 kHz regime, while using either a pseudo-noise-coded waveform or just a high-power, noisy laser with a broad linewidth (e.g., a truly random noise lidar) may enable a new generation of improved lidar sensors and processors. Preliminary experimental demonstrations of lidar ranging and simulation on range-Doppler processing are presented.

RF spectrum analysis in spectral hole burning media

We demonstrate an RF spectrum analyzer based on spectral-hole burning (SHB) that operates with unity probability of intercept and resolution under 100 kHz. An SHB crystal, which consists of rare-earth ions doped into a crystal host, records the power spectrum of an RF signal modulated onto an optical carrier as a series of spectral holes that persist for about 10 ms. While the crystals homogeneous and inhomogeneous linewidths place the fundamental limits on resolution and bandwidth, respectively, the practical limits depend on the lasers used to interrogate the record stored in the crystals absorption profile. Up to now, SHB spectrum analyzers have used chirped beams from externally modulated, stabilized lasers, which have linewidths of under 10 kHz but cannot chirp over much more than octave bandwidths, or directly modulated diode lasers, which can chirp over more than 20GHz but have linewidths of about 1 MHz. Switching to chirped fiber lasers, which have natural linewidths of under 2 kHz and chirping linewidths on the order of 10 kHz, produces a measurement with fine resolution without any laser stabilization. In addition, by chirping the fiber laser with a sufficiently fast piezo, the resulting chirp could extend over tens of gigahertz in under 10 ms, yielding both fine resolution and broad bandwidth without extraordinary stabilization schemes.

Tolerances of a page-based holographic data storage system

The media position and tilt tolerances of a high numerical aperture (NA) holographic data storage system are examined experimentally. The sources for these tolerances are explained and techniques for optimizing the drive tolerances are described.

Modeling of femtosecond pulse interaction with inhomogeneously broadened media using an iterative predictor corrector FDTD method

We present a one-dimensional iterative predictor-corrector finite-difference time-domain method for modeling of broadband optical pulse propagation and interaction with inhomogeneously broadened materials. The simulator is used to demonstrate two- and three-pulse photon echoes resulting from bandwidth limited pulse and matched chirp interactions with a material modeled with hundreds of equally spaced, discrete spectral lines of detuning. The results are illustrated as Bloch-sphere evolution movies.

Sparse antenna array multiple beamforming and spectral analysis using spatial-spectral holography

Fourier-plane spatial-spectral holography and a frequency-scanned, variable magnification holographic readout system are used to form squint-free broadband RF images from a coherently fiber-remoted, optically-modulated, randomly-spaced array antenna, which is phase cohered by a photorefractive crystal.

Squint-Free Fourier-Optical RF Beamforming Using a SHB Crystal as an Imaging Detector

We describe and demonstrate a Fourier-optical beamformer that modulates RF energy from an antenna array onto a corresponding array of coherent optical beams and forms RF-frequency-scaled (or beam-squinted), far-field images through a single-lens optical Fourier transform. The squinted image is formed into a cryogenically cooled spectral hole burning (SHB) crystal, where it writes spatially-localized spectral images as holes in the crystals spatial-spectral absorption profile. The spectral-hole images at each resolvable spectral bin (10 MHz at 4.2 K) integrate during the population lifetime ( 1 ms) for frequencies within the inhomogeneous crystal bandwidth ( 20 GHz). A chirped laser diffracts from the holes, producing a sequence of spectrally resolved RF images. The diffracted light passes through a swept-zoom lens synchronized to the chirped laser readout. This zoom lens compensates for beam squint during readout and forms the squint-free images onto a charge-coupled device (CCD), where they are coherently detected. We demonstrate experimental squinted images from a 5 element array across a 350 MHz bandwidth that are recorded into and read from a Er:Eu:YSiO SHB crystal before a digital zoom compensates for beam squint. This system can be scaled up to form images from 2-D arrays with 1000s of elements across 20 GHz bandwidths.

Squint compensation for a broadband RF array spectral imager using spatial spectral holography

We present a proof-of-concept optical experiment that demonstrates the ability to record squinted broadband RF images formed by a Fourier beamforming phased-array antenna and subsequent squint correction using spatial spectral holography. A cryogenically cooled inhomogeneously broadened absorber (Tm3+:YAG) acts as a spectrally selective holographic medium which records the squinted RF image, covering a wide RF bandwidth (approaching 20 GHz) with resolution of approximately 1 MHz. Subsequently, a frequency-swept laser can read out the squinted image while a magnification-compensating motorized zoom lens synchronously corrects the magnification due to beam squint. Time-integration the image on a CCD detector array produces a squint-compensated broadband RF image, while detection with a MHz bandwidth detector can produce spectral estimates for all sources recorded with this imaging system.

Holographic method of cohering fiber tapped delay lines.

We propose, analyze, and demonstrate the use of a holographic method for cohering the output of a fiber tapped delay line (FTDL) that enables the use of fiber-remote optical modulators in coherent optical processing systems. We perform a theoretical examination of the phase-cohering process and show experimental results for a radio frequency (RF) spectrum analyzer that uses a lens to spatially Fourier transform the output of a holographically phase-cohered FTDL providing 50 MHz resolution and bandwidths approaching 3 GHz. Substantial improvements in bandwidth should be achievable with better fiber length-trimming accuracy and improvements in resolution can be obtained with longer fiber delay lines. We also analyze and demonstrate the use of a parallel holographic technique that compensates for polarization state scrambling induced by propagation through an array of single-mode fibers. Both the phase-cohering holography and the polarization fluctuation compensation can operate on hundreds of fibers in parallel, enabling both coherent optical signal processing with FTDLs and coherent fiber remoting of optically modulated RF signals from antenna arrays.