Frequency comb signal processing and noise mitigation based on coherent energy redistribution (Conference Presentation)

Optical frequency combs are the enabling technology of a myriad of areas of science and engineering, where the line frequency spacing plays a fundamental role in their areas of application. Here, we review recent research work on the proposal and experimental demonstration of a set of signal processing techniques based on linear phase-only operations, inspired by the theory of the Talbot effect. These are aimed at re-distributing the energy of periodic spectral waveforms, such as frequency combs, achieving an arbitrary control of their line spacing. The energy-preserving nature of such techniques provides them with the capability of mitigating the noise of the signals of interest in a deterministic way, even allowing for the detection and measurement of signals entirely buried under the noise floor.