Optical short-time Fourier transformation based on a bidirectional CFBG

A temporal convolution system for the short-time Fourier transformation (STFT) of an electrical signal based on a bidirectional chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this system, the electrical signal to be analyzed is applied to an electro-optical modulator to simultaneously modulate the temporal waveform and the spectrum of a time-stretched optical pulse, which is generated by a mode-locked laser and dispersed by a CFBG. The modulated optical signal is filtered to be several parts, added with separate time delays and sent to the other port of the same CFBG. Thus the optical signal is temporally recompressed and the spectrum of the electrical signal is able to be mapped into the time domain. The bidirectional CFBG realizes exactly complementary dispersion value for the optical pulse propagating in two opposite directions, which guarantees an optimal frequency resolution of the STFT system. An STFT experiment for a microwave signal with four different frequencies at 5 GHz, 10 GHz, 15 GHz and 20 GHz has been demonstrated.