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Photonics
Special Issues
Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications
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Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Optoelectronics and Optical Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 January 2027 | Viewed by 4727

Editors

Dr. Hao Luo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Fiber Optic Communication Laboratory, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Interests: high-precision measurement; high-rate optical fiber communication system; all-optical signal processing; high-frequency signal processing; microwave photonics; fiber optic sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Jinlong Yu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Interests: optoelectronics; high-speed optical communications; microwave photonics; laser ranging

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microwave photonics, an interdisciplinary field that merges the domains of radio-frequency engineering and photonics, has witnessed remarkable progress over the past few decades. By leveraging the unique advantages of photonic technologies, such as ultra-wide bandwidth, low loss, and immunity to electromagnetic interference, microwave photonics enables advanced signal generation, processing, and distribution at frequencies far beyond the capabilities of purely electronic systems. This field has become increasingly vital for applications in 5G/6G wireless communications, radar systems, satellite links, and modern instrumentation.

Recent advances in photonic integration, tunable microwave filters, optoelectronic oscillators, and broadband signal modulators have significantly expanded the scope and practicality of microwave photonic systems. Furthermore, the emergence of artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and terahertz communications is opening new frontiers at which microwave photonics plays a critical enabling role.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue, titled “Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications”, which aims to present the latest developments and emerging trends, address ongoing challenges, and foster interdisciplinary collaboration in this rapidly evolving field. It will serve as a platform on which researchers and engineers may present breakthroughs that are shaping the future of high-frequency communication and sensing technologies. This issue will cover a wide range of topics, including but not limited to high-frequency signal generation, optoelectronic oscillators, photonic filters, microwave photonic sensing, and integrated photonic platforms for RF applications. Contributions may include original research articles, comprehensive reviews, or application-focused studies that advance the understanding and implementation of microwave photonic technologies. We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions to this exciting initiative.

Dr. Hao Luo
Prof. Dr. Jinlong Yu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • microwave photonics
  • optoelectronic oscillators
  • photonic signal processing
  • integrated microwave photonic circuits
  • RF-over-fiber
  • microwave photonic filters
  • high-frequency signal generation
  • optical modulation and detection
  • photonic-assisted radar and sensing
  • wideband analog optical links

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 1745 KB  
Article
Reservoir Computing Using an Electroabsorption Modulated Laser-Based Optoelectronic Oscillator
by Jiuchang Peng, Juanjuan Yan and Rufei Zhang
Photonics 2026, 13(7), 646; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13070646 - 2 Jul 2026
Viewed by 492
Abstract
Reservoir computing (RC) is a simple and highly efficient artificial neural network. For such a network, only the output connection weights need training, effectively reducing computational complexity. Optoelectronic time-delayed RC is typically based on an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with simultaneous broadband processing capabilities [...] Read more.
Reservoir computing (RC) is a simple and highly efficient artificial neural network. For such a network, only the output connection weights need training, effectively reducing computational complexity. Optoelectronic time-delayed RC is typically based on an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with simultaneous broadband processing capabilities for both optical and electrical signals, while being readily implementable based on existing technologies. In this work, a new OEO-based RC (OEO-RC) using an electroabsorption modulated laser (EML) is designed, and the electroabsorption modulator (EAM) integrated in the EML serves as a nonlinear node. This scheme simplifies the architecture of an OEO-RC. And it is validated by using two typical tasks of the NARMA 10 time series prediction and the handwritten digit image recognition. Numerical results demonstrate that with optimized hyperparameters, this EML-based OEO-RC exhibits a comparable performance compared with some existing photonic time-delayed RCs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications)
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14 pages, 1501 KB  
Article
Single-Channel Two-Bit Photonic DAC via Delta-Sigma Noise Shaping and Talbot Enhancement
by Fei Xu, Boxiao Han, Ya Li, Siliang Zhu, Shuna Yang and Hao Chi
Photonics 2026, 13(7), 625; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13070625 - 29 Jun 2026
Viewed by 365
Abstract
Simultaneously achieving a high sampling rate, broad bandwidth, and high conversion resolution while maintaining reduced optical-channel complexity remains a fundamental challenge for photonic digital-to-analog converters (PDACs). To address this challenge, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a single-channel two-bit PDAC integrating delta–sigma (ΔΣ) noise [...] Read more.
Simultaneously achieving a high sampling rate, broad bandwidth, and high conversion resolution while maintaining reduced optical-channel complexity remains a fundamental challenge for photonic digital-to-analog converters (PDACs). To address this challenge, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a single-channel two-bit PDAC integrating delta–sigma (ΔΣ) noise shaping and fractional Talbot pulse repetition-rate enhancement. The proposed scheme jointly exploits digital-domain noise shaping and optical-domain sampling rate enhancement to suppress in-band quantization noise and expand the effective bandwidth within a compact single-channel configuration. A dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (DDMZM) is adopted to realize linear four-level optical intensity mapping, eliminating the inter-channel mismatch issues in conventional multi-channel PDAC architectures. Experimentally, a 10.2 GHz optical pulse train is passively enhanced to 30.6 GHz, yielding an effective sampling rate of 30.6 GSa/s. Broadband X-band linear frequency-modulated waveforms (LFMs) with carrier frequencies of 7.5 GHz and 10 GHz are successfully generated, achieving effective numbers of bits (ENOBs) of 4.83, 3.96, and 3.64 for 2 GHz single-chirp, 4 GHz single-chirp, and 4 GHz dual-chirp signals, respectively. In addition, high-fidelity reconstruction of 1 GHz square and triangular waveforms is demonstrated. The proposed PDAC combines sampling-rate enhancement and noise suppression in a single-channel configuration, enabling high-speed broadband microwave photonic arbitrary waveform generation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications)
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18 pages, 3207 KB  
Article
Meta-Learning-Based Multi-Task Framework for Joint Modulation Format Identification and ESNR Estimation in Coherent Optical Communication Systems
by Qifan Zhang, Shi Jia, Tianhao Zhang, Zhuangzhuang Zang, Shiqian Jia, Lianmeng Wu, Hao Luo and Jinlong Yu
Photonics 2026, 13(7), 607; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13070607 - 24 Jun 2026
Viewed by 380
Abstract
Optical performance monitoring is essential for adaptive and intelligent coherent optical communication systems. In this paper, a Transformer-based multi-task meta-learning framework is proposed for joint modulation format identification and electrical signal-to-noise ratio (ESNR) estimation from original received waveforms. A simulated coherent optical communication [...] Read more.
Optical performance monitoring is essential for adaptive and intelligent coherent optical communication systems. In this paper, a Transformer-based multi-task meta-learning framework is proposed for joint modulation format identification and electrical signal-to-noise ratio (ESNR) estimation from original received waveforms. A simulated coherent optical communication system is established to generate QPSK, 16QAM, and 32QAM signals under different launch-power conditions. The received I/Q waveforms are directly used as model inputs, avoiding handcrafted feature extraction or constellation-image conversion. The proposed model employs a shared one-dimensional Transformer encoder to extract temporal waveform representations. A prototypical classification branch is used for few-shot modulation format identification, while an ESNR regression branch is introduced for continuous signal-quality estimation. The two tasks are jointly optimized under an episodic support-query training mechanism. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves 99.99% modulation identification accuracy on the test episodes. For ESNR estimation, the model obtains an MAE of 0.1194 dB, an RMSE of 0.1738 dB, and an R2 value of 99.83%. These results demonstrate that the proposed framework can simultaneously provide accurate modulation decisions and reliable ESNR estimation, showing its potential for waveform-based optical performance monitoring. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications)
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8 pages, 1518 KB  
Article
High-Extinction-Ratio Electro-Optic Modulator on Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Operating at 1064 nm
by Zimiao Su and Lutong Cai
Photonics 2026, 13(5), 505; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13050505 - 21 May 2026
Viewed by 893
Abstract
Laser sources emitting light at 1064 nm enable key applications in lidar, quantum photonics, and remote sensing, where high-extinction-ratio intensity modulation is desired to suppress the leakage light at the “off” states during modulation. Here we demonstrate a 1064 nm thin-film lithium niobate [...] Read more.
Laser sources emitting light at 1064 nm enable key applications in lidar, quantum photonics, and remote sensing, where high-extinction-ratio intensity modulation is desired to suppress the leakage light at the “off” states during modulation. Here we demonstrate a 1064 nm thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) Mach–Zehnder electro-optic modulator featuring a half-wave voltage–length product of 2.1 V·cm and a measured electro-optic 3 dB bandwidth exceeding 10 GHz. By optimizing the waveguide and MMI-based interferometer design to improve device balance, we achieve an extinction ratio exceeding 30 dB without thermal tuning. This high extinction ratio enables high-contrast optical modulation at 1064 nm, which is essential for optical switching and other photonic applications requiring high on–off contrast. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications)
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12 pages, 979 KB  
Article
Proposal of Compact Photonic Quantization Based on Dual-Output Mach-Zehnder Modulators
by Dongze Wei, Haonan Zheng and Hao Chi
Photonics 2026, 13(5), 461; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13050461 - 7 May 2026
Viewed by 579
Abstract
In this paper, to reduce system complexity and improve performance, we propose a novel compact photonic quantization scheme based on dual-output Mach–Zehnder modulators (DOMZMs). By exploiting the complementary outputs of DOMZMs and introducing a cross-channel differential combination strategy, multiple effective quantization channels are [...] Read more.
In this paper, to reduce system complexity and improve performance, we propose a novel compact photonic quantization scheme based on dual-output Mach–Zehnder modulators (DOMZMs). By exploiting the complementary outputs of DOMZMs and introducing a cross-channel differential combination strategy, multiple effective quantization channels are generated without increasing the number of modulators. Furthermore, an adaptive thresholding mechanism based on intrinsic signal intersections enables direct Gray code output with improved noise tolerance. Proof-of-concept experimental results fully confirm the correctness of the principle, and 4-bit quantization is successfully demonstrated. Experimental and numerical results both demonstrate good linearity over the full-scale input range, and confirm the feasibility of the proposed scheme. More performance evaluations are provided through simulations. We also discuss challenges relating to practical deployment of the proposed approach. The presented approach provides a promising solution for compact photonic analog-to-digital conversion systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications)
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13 pages, 2403 KB  
Article
Frequency-Doubled Phase-Coded Microwave Pulses Generation Based on an Optoelectronic Oscillator
by Xiao Chen, Huiyun Tang, Nan Zhang, Jingfeng Du, Yumo Lei, Ming Li and Wei Li
Photonics 2026, 13(4), 317; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13040317 - 25 Mar 2026
Viewed by 477
Abstract
This paper proposes an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO)-based scheme for generating frequency-doubled binary phase-coded microwave pulses. The architecture employs a cascaded dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying modulator (DP-QPSK) and a polarization modulator (PolM) to generate carrier-suppressed ±2nd-order sidebands and an orthogonally polarized optical carrier. [...] Read more.
This paper proposes an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO)-based scheme for generating frequency-doubled binary phase-coded microwave pulses. The architecture employs a cascaded dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying modulator (DP-QPSK) and a polarization modulator (PolM) to generate carrier-suppressed ±2nd-order sidebands and an orthogonally polarized optical carrier. By applying opposite phase modulation to the two polarization components and subsequently converting them into the same polarization state using a polarization controller (PC) and a polarizer, frequency-doubled phase-coded microwave pulses are obtained after photodetection. The operating principle of the scheme is theoretically analyzed and experimentally validated. A 5 GHz OEO signal is successfully converted into a 10 GHz phase-coded microwave pulse without the use of an external electronic frequency multiplier or an additional intensity modulator for pulse carving. Binary phase-coded pulses with coding rates of 0.1 Gb/s and 0.25 Gb/s are experimentally demonstrated. The measured temporal waveforms, recovered phase information, and autocorrelation results agree well with theoretical predictions. The proposed scheme provides a structurally simple and frequency-doubling solution for OEO-based phase-coded microwave pulse generation with reduced system complexity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications)
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12 pages, 3612 KB  
Article
A Broad-Temperature-Range Wavelength Tracking System Employing a Thermistor Monitoring Circuit and a Tunable Optical Filter
by Ju Wang, Manyun Liu, Hao Luo, Xuemin Su, Chuang Ma and Jinlong Yu
Photonics 2025, 12(10), 1038; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics12101038 - 21 Oct 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 764
Abstract
A broad-temperature-range wavelength tracking system employing a thermistor monitoring circuit and a tunable optical filter is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this scheme, a thermistor monitoring circuit is utilized to acquire the real-time resistance values of a distributed feedback laser diode (DFB-LD). When [...] Read more.
A broad-temperature-range wavelength tracking system employing a thermistor monitoring circuit and a tunable optical filter is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this scheme, a thermistor monitoring circuit is utilized to acquire the real-time resistance values of a distributed feedback laser diode (DFB-LD). When the mapping relationship curve among thermistor resistance, temperature, and center wavelength of the DFB-LD is established, the drive voltage of the narrowband tunable optical filter is dynamically adjusted to regulate its filter window. Therefore, wavelength tracking is achieved by matching the filter window and the center wavelength of the DFB-LD. The experimental results show that the proposed system can achieve adaptive wavelength tracking within the operation band of 1539.4 nm to 1548.6 nm across a temperature range from −40 °C to 60 °C. The wavelength detection resolution and the minimum step of wavelength control are better than 0.79 pm and 0.1 nm, respectively. By exploiting the conversion characteristics between the thermistor and the center wavelength of the DFB-LD, this approach transforms laser wavelength detection into a low-cost, real-time electrical measurement, significantly enhancing transmission stability and reliability of laser sources in complex thermal environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Photonics: Advances and Applications)
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