Programmable and single-shot chirped microwave pulse compression using an optical fiber-based microwave dispersive line

Abstract

An approach for programmable single-shot chirped microwave pulse compression is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on an optical fiber-based microwave dispersive line. The microwave dispersive line is implemented based on a time-spectrum convolution system. This proposed technique has three key features. The first feature is that non-periodic input chirped microwave pulses can be single-shot compressed. The second one is that the compression system is programmable by shaping the spectrum of a broadband multi-wavelength laser or by tuning the first-order dispersion of a dispersive element. The last one is that microwave dispersive line provides an ultrahigh microwave dispersion approaching several ns2 over GHz bandwidths. The microwave dispersive line used to implement single-shot microwave pulse compression is theoretically analyzed and verified by a proof-of-concept experiment.