Patent ID: 8768180
Filing Date: 2014-07-01
Classification: H04B

Abstract:
1. An optical sampling arrangement for evaluating the complete electric field, both amplitude and phase, of an optical input signal S normally comprising optically-encoded data, the optical sampling arrangement comprising an optical source for generating a local oscillator reference signal LO; an optical hybrid responsive to the optical input signal S and the reference signal LO for combining said S and LO signals and generating therefrom at least two composite output signals comprising complex-field sums of said S and LO signals with a known phase relationship therebetween; a strobe source for generating gating pulses at a predetermined frequency f at least two sampling elements, each sampling element responsive to a separate one of the at least two composite output signals from the optical hybrid and having a gating function controlled by gating pulses from the strobe source for transforming the applied composite optical signals into a train of composite signal samples, the relative phase of each of said at least two trains of composite signal samples being independent and invariant to pulse-to-pulse phase variations of said strobe source; an optical-to-electrical conversion element for transforming the at least two trains of composite signal samples from the at least two sampling elements into respective electrical streams of samples; and a signal processor for digitizing the electrical streams of samples and extracting therefrom a representation of at least one sampled version of the electric field of optical input signal S.