Arbitrary waveform generator and differentiator employing an integrated optical pulse shaper

We propose and demonstrate an optical arbitrary waveformgenerator and high-order photonic differentiator based on a four-tap finiteimpulse response (FIR) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) on-chip circuit. Based onamplitude and phase modulation of each tap controlled by thermal heaters,we obtain several typical waveforms such as triangular waveform, sawtoothwaveform, square waveform and Gaussian waveform, etc., assisted by anoptical frequency comb injection. Unlike other proposed schemes, ourscheme does not require a spectral disperser which is difficult to fabricateon chip with high resolution. In addition, we demonstrate first-, second- andthird-order differentiators based on the optical pulse shaper. Our schemecan switch the differentiator patterns from first- to third-order freely. Inaddition, our scheme has distinct advantages of compactness, capability forintegration with electronics