On-chip programmable pulse processor employing cascaded MZI-MRR structure

Optical pulse processor meets the urgent demand for high-speed, ultra wideband devices, which can avoid electrical confinements in various fields, e.g., alloptical communication, optical computing technology, coherent control and microwave fields. To date, great efforts have been made particularly in on-chip programmable pulse processing. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a programmable pulse processor employing 16-cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometer coupled microring resonator (MZI-MRR) structure based on silicon-oninsulator wafer. With micro-heaters loaded to the device, both amplitude and frequency tunings can be realized in each MZI-MRR unit. Thanks to its reconfigurability and integration ability, the pulse processor has exhibited versatile functions. First, it can serve as a fractional differentiator whose tuning range is 0.51-2.23 with deviation no more than 7%. Second, the device can be tuned into a programmable optical filter whose bandwidth varies from 0.15 to 0.97 nm. The optical filter is also shape tunable. Especially, 15-channel wavelength selective switches are generated.