A novel quantization scheme by slicing supercontinuum spectrum for all-optical analog-to-digital conversion

Abstract

We describe the principle of a novel quantization scheme for all-optical analog-to-digital conversion. The proposed quantization is realized by slicing the supercontinuum spectrum with an arrayed waveguide grating. We conducted a proof-of-principle experiment of an optical three-level thresholding process and successfully demonstrated a two-bit optical quantizer, which shows the feasibility of the proposed scheme.