Agilent Technologies 86038A User Manual page 58

Measurement Concepts Description of the 86038A
Swept mode
In the swept mode, the user enters the start and stop wavelengths and the
trace points. A sweep time is computed based on the operational limits of
the TLS and the RF network analyzer. In operation, the TLS sweeps
wavelength versus time while the RF network analyzer periodically
samples the recovered RF amplitude and phase. Amplitude and phase
samples are associated with wavelength values through the intermediate
variable, time. Implicit in this process is a wavelength resolution
associated with the wavelength increment between adjacent samples. As
in the case of the stepped measurement, wavelength resolution is also
affected by the modulation frequency, discussed elsewhere.
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Agilent 86038A Optical Dispersion Analyzer, Third Edition