Laser synthesizer of the ALMA telescope: Design and performance

Ayotte, S.; Babin, A.; Poulin, P.; Poulin, Michel; Jeanneau, Amelie; Picard, Marie-Josée; Poulin, D.; Davidson, Charles-Andre; Aube, M.; Alexandre, Isabelle; Costin, F.; Pelletier, F.; Cliche, J. F.; Têtu, M.; Shillue, Bill

doi:10.1109/mwp.2010.5664623

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The low-frequency mixing product is then used as an error signal which is fed back to frequency control and lock in phase one of the optical sources (the slave laser) to the other (the master laser). When used with lasers exhibiting small modulation bandwidth, this simple scheme can be improved by adding to it another locking-loop, this one taking care of the fast phase fluctuations of the beat signal [6]. The filtered error signal of this fast loop is sent to a phase modulator in the path of the slave laser.…”

Section: State-of-the-art Phase-locking Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optically Phase-locked Lasers for RF Photonics Applications

Poulin

Ayotte

Costin

et al. 2015

Optical Fiber Communication Conference

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Section: State-of-the-art Phase-locking Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Phase noise spectrum achievable using this first generation of OPLL systems is shown in fig. 5 (black curve) [6].…”

Section: Large Noise Correction Bandwidth Using Laser With Flat Fm Rementioning

confidence: 99%

Optically Phase-locked Lasers for RF Photonics Applications

Poulin

Ayotte

Costin

et al. 2015

Optical Fiber Communication Conference

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“…*The generation of a high spectral purity RF local oscillator (LO) by means of optical heterodyning is interesting for applications like phase array antenna (PAA) (Khan et al, 2017a;2017b), clock distribution, radar and antenna remoting (Ayotte et al, 2010;Palacio et al, 2010). The basic idea behind optical heterodyning is to generate an RF carrier by beating of two laser frequencies at the output of the photodetector (PD) (Khan et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A photonic frequency discriminator based laser linewidth estimation technique

Khan¹,

Hoque²

2019

Int. j. adv. appl. sci.

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The conventional methods on the measurement of linewidth of an individual laser or free-running beat spectrum are unable to realize both direct and accurate measurement/estimation all at once. An optical measurement or estimation technique is necessary for very high frequency optical system. The direct measurement of the optical spectrum from an RF-SA suffers from the frequency jitter, hence provides an inaccurate measurement. On the other hand methods to estimate the RF beat linewidth without directly measuring the RF spectrum are limited in terms of frequency range. We propose to use an optical discriminator to estimate the beat spectrum linewidth of a free running heterodyning system. Using a dense wavelength multiplexing (DWDM) filter as an optical discriminator, the transformation of phase modulation (PM) to intensity modulation (IM) is achieved. So, transformed laser phase noise into RIN (relative intensity noise). The proposed concept for beat spectrum linewidth estimate is shown and compared to other direct/indirect beat spectrum measurement techniques. Our proposed technique estimates the beat linewidth more accurately and by direct measurements of the beat spectrum. Moreover, the proposed technique operates in optical domain, thus not limited in frequency range. This technique is not affected by frequency jitter unlike the other methods for beat spectrum linewidth measurement.

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“…In addition to that, optical fiber cables are compact, lightweight and provide wide bandwidth and immunity to electromagnetic interference [8]. This approach has been proven as a successful solution in many deployed systems for instance radio-astronomy [9,10] and satellites for remote sensing [11]. In order to use an optically generated carrier in a satellite reception system it must meet the criteria of that of the specifications given for commercially available electronic carrier.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carrier generation using a dual-frequency distributed feedback waveguide laser for phased array antenna (PAA)

Khan

Islam

Sarowar

et al. 2017

J. Eur. Opt. Soc.-Rapid Publ.

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Background: Carrier generation based on optical heterodyning techniques where a beat signal is generated from the mixing of two light sources can be interesting solution due to ease on tunability. The free running heterodyning scheme benefits with a very wide tuning capability and the generated carrier can be freely adjusted. However, the drawbacks come in the form of frequency stability. Heterodyning of two optical frequencies coming from a single laser cavity has shown its potential on improvement of frequency stability. Methods: The impact of the laser parameters (i.e., optical power and linewidth) on the quality of the generated carrier (i.e., phase/frequency stability and carrier-to-noise ratio) is analyzed for a 25 × 64 elements PAA system. An optically generated carrier signal using a dual-frequency distributed feedback waveguide laser in ytterbium doped aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 :Yb 3+ ) is analyzed and experimentally demonstrated in this paper. The carrier signal is used for downconversion of the signal received from a phased array antenna (PAA) of a DVB-S (Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite) system. Results: An optical frequency locked loop (OFLL) to stabilize the generated carrier is implemented which results in a microwave frequency at ∼14 GHz with a phase noise of -75 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the center frequency and gives a loop settling time of 12 μs. By using the proposed OFLL, the long term and the short term frequency stability of the generated carrier has an Allan deviation of more than 1 × 10 −10 for an averaging time of 1000 s and a standard deviation of 39.4 kHz, respectively. The lasers linewidth should be in the order of tens of Hz, with a maximum relative intensity noise (RIN) of -107 dB/Hz and a minimum optical power of 0.94 mW. Conclusions: The optical carrier generation by OFLL using a DFL to comply with the requirements of the standard carrier used in commercial LNBs has been investigated. The detailed analysis of the OFLL scheme is presented. Specifications requirement on carrier power, linewidth and relative intensity noise of the optically generated carrier have been addressed. The optical carrier generation is experimentally demonstrated and the requirements on CNR have been determined by measuring the noise floor and the optical carrier power. The measured values are compared with the calculated values and found to be very close.

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Laser synthesizer of the ALMA telescope: Design and performance

Abstract: The Laser Synthesizer of the Atacama Large Millimiter Array telescope in Chile has been designed and built by TeraXion. We present the design and performance achieved with this instrument.

Cited by 16 publications

References 5 publications

Optically Phase-locked Lasers for RF Photonics Applications

Optically Phase-locked Lasers for RF Photonics Applications

A photonic frequency discriminator based laser linewidth estimation technique

Carrier generation using a dual-frequency distributed feedback waveguide laser for phased array antenna (PAA)

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