RF Multiplier Based on Harmonic-Locked SMFP-LD and OEO Structure

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an RF signal multiplier based on optical injection locking in a semiconductor laser followed by an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO). In the proposed scheme, the modulated master laser is injected into a slave laser, a single mode Fabry-Pérot laser diode (SMFP-LD), in such a way that one of the harmonics of the modulated beam is locked to the corresponding mode of the SMFP-LD. By optical beating at the output of the SMFP-LD, stable multiple RF signals with ahigh signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are generated due to SMFP-LD, which provides a sufficient gain to the RF signal. Further, we employ an OEO structure at the output of the SMFP-LD to optimize one of the generated multiple RF signals which are determined by the electrical bandpass filter (EBPF) and the low noise amplifier (LNF) in the OEO loop. As the gain of the OEO loop is higher than the loss, a high-purity oscillating signal, which is the selected multiple RF frequency, can be generated. In the experiment, a sextuple frequency (20 GHz) of the modulated signal is observed with an SNR and the phase noise of 54.44 dB and −102.44 dBc/Hz@10 kHz, respectively. Compared with other photonic schemes, the proposed method provides high SNR, higher multiplication factor, and low phase noise.

Keywords

• Optical injection
• linear frequency modulation
• SMFP-LD
• red-shift