Instantaneous frequency measurement with adjustable measurement range and resolution based on polarisation modulator

An instantaneous frequency measurement scheme incorporating a polarisation-modulator-(PolM)-based link is proposed and demonstrated. With the adjustable dispersion-induced microwave power penalties in the PolM-based link, the measurement range and resolution can be easily tuned. Therefore, optimised resolution for a specific measurement range can be achieved. An experiment has been performed and a frequency measurement range of 3.3-18.7 GHz with a measurement resolution of -0.15 GHz was achieved.