Wide Band & high resolution optical coherent processing of RF signals in Er:YSO using a frequency agile laser

In this paper, the first wide band and high resolution demonstration of the chirp transform algorithm is presented. Because it is performed with a frequency agile laser source, this demonstration opens the way to the wealth of wide band spectral coherent processes that rare-earth ion doped crystals can handle. Using this source, the chirp transform process is demonstrated with a bandwidth in excess of 1 GHz together with more than 20,000 independent frequency channels.