Proposal Title: Compact Mode-Locked Laser for Optical Signal Processing

Vescent Photonics, in collaboration with The Aerospace Corporation, proposes to develop a low size, weight, and power (SWaP) erbium (Er) fiber mode-locked oscillator (FMO) with ultra-low timing jitter for the demonstration of a photonic radio frequency (RF) receiver.  The RF receiver will utilize the technique of compressive sensing in a photonically integrated multi-mode waveguide to detect ultra-wide band RF signals significantly below the Nyquist rate.  This technique of photonic compressive sensing reduces the need for data storage, data-payload transmission time, and overall receiver SWaP, enabling a compact field deployable RF receiver.  Such technology will assist the Navy in identifying threating RF transmissions in situ, including jamming and spoofing attacks that cause issues with both navigation and communication signals. Recent demonstrations of compressive sensing experiments recovered multiple RF tones between 2 – 19 GHz simultaneously where the data was acquired at < 50 MSamples/s in a laboratory setting. At the completion of the Phase II effort, Vescent and Aerospace will demonstrate a fully integrated brassboard RF receiver employing a photonic compressive sensing readout.