In-Fiber Fractional Signal Processing: Recent Results and Applications

The implementation of mathematical operators using photonic signal processing –as for example, conventional differentiators and integrators– is particularly well suited to overcome the speed and bandwidth limitations of electronics. In the Laboratory of Fiber Optics of the University of Valencia we work on the development of in-fiber time-domain fractional operators and their applications. In the last years we have made some specific proposals to perform photonic fractional differentiation (PFD), photonic fractional integration (PFI), photonic fractional Hilbert transform (PFHT), and photonic fractional Fourier transform (PFFT), using fiber-based technologies. Recently, we have been able to implement experimentally some of these theoretical proposals, and we have found specific applications for the 0.5 th -order differentiation and the photonic fractional Fourier transform in the area of phase recovery of optical pulses.