Photonics-assisted RF signal storage scheme

A novel photonics-assisted radio frequency (RF) signal storage scheme is proposed and demonstrated. By combining the low noise characteristics of the Raman fiber amplifier (RFA) and the high amplifier gain of the Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), the storage depth, the storage time and the storage fidelity can be significantly improved. The experimental results show the system's capability to store a RF pulse with a 2-GHz bandwidth centered at 7 GHz and a pulse interval of 50 μs for more than 4.5 ms. The degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is observed to be less than 0.06 dB for each replication circulation. The demonstrated system offers a solution to achieve long-time storage of pulses with large bandwidth while maintaining a low noise figure (NF).