Photonic Time Compressing Assisted Real-time Fourier Transform System

A novel photonic realtime Fourier transform (PRTFT) system assisted by the photonic time compressing is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. By introducing the photonic time compressing, the frequency of the input RF signal is stretched, and thus the frequency-to-time mapping output is also stretched. In this way, the frequency resolution will be improved. A frequency magnification factor of 7 is achieved experimentally and the frequency resolution is improved from 140 to 30 MHz.