Photonic Frequency Synthesis and Control with Whispering Gallery Mode Resonators

Optical whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonators exhibit bandwidth in the hundred kilohertz to gigahertz range. In microwave photonics applications, this bandwidth corresponds to the wide range of equivalent radio-frequency Q-factors (between 10 and 10^6 for the X-band). This unique flexibility, in combination with the proper choice for highly transparent and/or nonlinear resonator material, allows for realization of a number of high performance microwave photonic devices: tunable and multi-pole filters, resonant electro-optic modulator, photonic microwave receiver, and opto-electronic microwave oscillator.