Method and apparatus for synthesizing and correcting phase distortions in ultra-wide bandwidth optical waveforms

A system for characterizing and compensating for deterministic phase nonlinearities and distortion inherent in radio frequency and optical components utilized to synthesize a single sideband suppressed carrier optical waveform in the presence of random phase noise generated by an optical carrier source, the system comprising:

• an optical coupler configured to mix a modulated optical signal with a constant frequency optical signal;
• an optical detector configured to receive the mixed signal output from the optical coupler and optically heterodyne the mixed signal to produce a radio frequency waveform;
• and
• a processor in communication with a memory having instructions stored therein which, when executed compare the produced radio frequency waveform to a known, theoretical phase history of a preselected continuous wave signal and measure distortion characteristics of the radio frequency modulated optical signal.

A computer-readable physical medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to carry out functions related to compensating for deterministic phase nonlinearities and distortion in a radio frequency and optical components utilized to synthesize a single sideband suppressed carrier optical waveform, the functions comprising:

• generating a first waveform comprising a linear frequency modulated chirp;
• determining a distortion component from a received second waveform;
• and
• modifying the first waveform using the determined distortion component to compensate for the deterministic phase nonlinearities and distortion of the received second waveform produced by the radio frequency components and the one or more optical components.