High frequency and broadband signal measurements by ultrafast opto-microwave intermixing and sampling

Low frequency replication (600 kHz to 18 MHz) of a high frequency waveform (1 GHz to 30 GHz) was achieved using a photoconductive-based optical-microwave (OM) sampler. This OM sampler performs better than a 20 GHz digitizing sampling oscilloscope and is also superior to the standard pump and probe systems with orders of magnitude improvement in data acquisition rate.