Continuous wave sub-THz photonic generation with VCSEL-based optical frequency comb Articles uri icon

publication date

  • July 2013

start page

  • 944

end page

  • 949

issue

  • 15 (944)

volume

  • 49

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0013-5194

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1350-911X

abstract

  • A simple and energy-efficient photonic system to generate continuously tunable, low phase noise, sub-THz waves based on COTS components is presented. The optical scheme is based on the use of a commercial vertical cavity surface emitting laser under gain switching modulation that provides a very flat optical frequency comb generator (OFCG) with 23 modes in a 20 dB bandwidth. The laser only needs 15 dBm continuous wave radiofrequency input power and 9 mA of bias current to provide this OFCG. Two optical injection locking stages filter and amplify the two desired modes that are detected in a photodiode to produce the desired sub-THz signal at the frequency difference of these two selected modes. As an example, demonstrated is the generation of a very stable 88.2 GHz tone with lower linewidth than 10 Hz using a reference of 4.2 GHz to generate the OFCG.

subjects

  • Electronics
  • Optics

keywords

  • vertical cavity surface emitting laser (vcsel); optical frequency comb generator (ofcg)