  Sampling is the first step to convert an analogue optical signal into a
digital electrical signal. The latter can be further processed and analysed by
well-known electrical signal processing methods. Optical pulse sources like
mode-locked lasers are commonly incorporated for all-optical sampling, but have
several drawbacks. A novel approach for a simple all-optical sampling is to
utilise the frequency-time coherence of each signal. The method is based on
only using two coupled modulators driven with an electrical sine wave, allowing
simple integration in appropriate platforms, such as Silicon Photonics. The
presented method grants all-optical sampling with electrically tunable
bandwidth, repetition rate and time shift.
