On-chip non-uniformly spaced multi-channel microwave photonic signal processor based on an ultrahigh-Q multimode micro-disk resonator

Multi-channel microwave photonic (MWP) signal processing can simultaneously perform different task operations on multiple signals carried by multiple wavelengths, which holds great potential for ultrafast signal processing and characterization in a wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) network. As emerging telecommunication services create more data, an elastic optical network, which has a flexible and non-uniform spectrum channel spacing, is an alternative architecture to meet the ever-increasing data transfer need. Here, for the multi-channel ultra-fast signal processing in the elastic optical network, we propose and demonstrate an on-chip non-uniformly spaced multi-channel microwave photonic signal processor based on an ultrahigh-Q multimode micro-disk resonator (MDR). In the proposed signal processor, an MDR supporting multiple different order whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) with an ultrahigh Q-factor is specifically designed. Benefiting from the large and different free spectral ranges (FSRs) provided by the different order WGMs, a non-uniformly spaced multi-channel microwave photonic signal processor is realized, and various processing functions are experimentally demonstrated including bandpass filtering with a narrow passband of 103 MHz, a rejection ratio of 22.3 dB and a frequency tuning range from 1 to 30 GHz, multiple frequency measurement with a frequency measurement range from 1 to 30 GHz, a frequency resolution better than 200 MHz and a measurement accuracy of 91.3 MHz, and phase shifting with a phase tuning range from -170°∼160°, an operational bandwidth of 26 GHz from 6 GHz to 32 GHz and a small power variation of 0.43 dB. Thanks to the coexistence of different order WGMs supported by the MDR, non-uniformly spaced multi-channel signal processing is enabled with the key advantages including a broad operation bandwidth, an ultra-narrow frequency selectivity, and a large phase tuning range with a small power variation. The proposed signal processor is promising to be widely used in future elastic optical networks with flexible spectrum grids.