Single-Shot Photonic Time-Stretch Analog-to-Digital Converter Based on Dissipative Soliton

We demonstrate a photonic time-stretch analog-to-digital converter (ADC) based on dissipative solitons. The dissipative soliton is generated by a passively mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser with a net positive group-velocity dispersion in the cavity, which has a large energy spectral density and a relatively flat spectrum with steep edges. The relatively flat spectrum with steep edges can effectively mitigate the signal distortion problem in the time stretch process. The large energy spectral density is favorable for increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the system. Through employing dissipative solitons in a photonic time-stretch ADC, an effective number of bits of 4.2 bits under an effective sampling rate of 100 GS/s is obtained without adding any optical amplifier in the system.