Experimental observation of optical differentiation and optical Hilbert transformation using a single SOI microdisk chip

Abstract

Optical differentiation and optical Hilbert transformation play important roles in communications, computing, information processing and signal analysis in optical domain which offering huge bandwidth. Meanwhile, silicon-based photonic integrated circuits are preferable in all-optical signal processing due to their intrinsic advantages of low power consumption, compact footprint and ultra-high speed. In this study, we analyze the interrelation between first-order optical differentiation and optical Hilbert transformation and then experimentally demonstrate a feasible integrated scheme which can simultaneously function as first-order optical differentiation and optical Hilbert transformation based on a single microdisk resonator. This finding may motivate the development of integrated optical signal processors.