Radio Frequency Photonic Synthesizer

Two-mode beat phase noise of actively modelocked lasers

“…One of the key elements of the above applications is the capability of generating a low noise microwave signal by beating two highly coherent optical modes. These two optical modes may be obtained from two synchronized lasers [4] or from a single modelocked laser [5]. The latter is especially intriguing because of the extremely low noise nature of modelocked lasers and their capability of generating many modes with a well defined phase relationship.…”

All-optical heterodyne RF signal generation using a mode-locked-laser frequency comb: theory and experiments

“…The concept of optical injection-locking of two CW lasers to two sidebands of an AM and FM modulated semiconductor laser [4,5] was used to generate microwave and millimeter wave signals (64 GHz) [6]. This paper reports results of investigations of a photonic heterodyne synthesis technique[7] that extends the frequency range and performance of previous all-optical techniques by employing an actively mode-locked laser as the optical fresuency comb. A theoretical model was developed for the injectimlocking dynamics h m which the phase noise can be predicted in terms of the optical and RF component parameters.…”