A low-noise photonic heterodyne synthesizer and its application to millimeter-wave radar.

ABSTRACT: Microwave photonics offers transformative capabilities for ultra-wideband electronic signal processing and frequency synthesis with record-low phase noise levels. Despite the intrinsic bandwidth of optical systems operating at ~200 THz carrier frequencies, many schemes for high-performance photonics-based microwave generation lack broadband tunability, and experience tradeoffs between noise level, complexity, and frequency. An alternative approach uses direct frequency down-mixing of two tunable semiconductor lasers on a fast photodiode. This form of optical heterodyning is frequency-agile, but experimental realizations have been hindered by the relatively high noise of free-running lasers. Here, we demonstrate a heterodyne synthesizer based on ultralow-noise self-injection-locked lasers,

SUBMITTER: Kittlaus EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8292534 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature