Invited
RF Photonics with Brillouin Scattering: Will it Work?

We will discuss in-depth the impacts of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) on the fidelity of RF photonic signals and new ways to improve the performance of SBS-based signal processors.

Microwave signal processing using SBS in integrated waveguide circuits has received tremendous amount of interetsts in recent years. SBS promises unique processing functionalities often unmatched by other on-chip photonic devices, including high spectral resolution in the MHz scale, all-optical spectral reconfiguration, and optical amplification. But these advantages come with caveats because SBS can add relatively high noise and nonlinearity. In this work, we discuss the suitability of SBS for RF photonic signal processing where low noise figure and high dynamic range are desired. Impact of experimentally-controllable parameters including optical pump and signal powers, device length, and loss will be examined leading to an optimisation strategy for RF-photonic signal fidelity.