ABSTRACT
Within the last decade, the field of optic-microwave interactions has attracted
growing interest worldwide. The specific term of microwave photonics was
first introduced in 1991 and used to describe novel optoelectronic components
based on the interaction of traveling optical and microwaves [1,2]. In the
following years, it was foreseen that the merging of microwave and photonic
technologies would develop and become a new approach to future fiber-radio
communication systems, for example, in the transmission of radio frequency
(RF) signal over optical carriers [3]. Since then the field of RF optoelectronics
and microwave photonics rapidly broadened. Since 1996, International Top-
ical Meetings on Microwave Photonics (MWP) are held annually [4]. The
IEEE MTT Special Issue on Microwave Photonics that was first published in
the year 1995 is now published regularly [5].
