PHOTONIC INSTRUMENTATION AND ADVANCED TECHNIQUES FOR METROLOGY

Research and development of innovative photonic instrumentation focuses on photons or optical fields and the light-matter interaction for a wide range of scientific and industrial applications.

Our main target is to design, implement and demonstrate the feasibility of photonic instruments with advanced functionalities featuring unique properties beyond the current state of the art. Microwave Photonics (MWP) is a key research discipline which can offer great benefits to next-generation photonic instrumentation.

MWP is a highly interesting discipline with the aim of bringing relevant advancement and improved functionalities mainly through the combination of radiofrequency (RF) engineering and optical technology. The MWP historical development over the past 30 years runs in parallel with the field of communications. Initially, the advantages of photonic technologies are to provide functions in microwave systems that were very complex or even impossible to carry out directly in the RF domain. In this context, the major functions of the MWP systems go from basic performance such as distribution and control of microwave signals to more advanced purposes as generation and processing of microwave signals. Nowadays, MWP can be found in cellular, wireless, satellite communications, sensor networks, radars, distributed antenna systems and RF signal filtering. However, MWP is also succeeding in incorporating a variety of techniques used in RF engineering to improve the performance of photonic emerging applications going far beyond the field of communication. For instance, optical astronomy, quantum optics, Raman spectroscopy and biomedical sensing and imaging.

PRL expertise is related to the use of MWP technology for transmission, generation and processing of RF/MMW signals by means of the optical domain. In this context, our challenge is to achieve unprecedented benefits due to the incorporation of MWP technology in current photonic instruments and also to detect niche applications.