Title :
Optical generation of rapidly tunable millimeter wave subcarrier
Author :
Li, Yifei ; Vieira, Amarildo J C ; Herczfeld, Peter R.
Author_Institution :
Center for Microwave/Lightwave Eng., Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA, USA
Abstract :
Several applications, such as frequency chirped lidar-radar systems, optical/wireless communications and biomedical imaging, require optical transmitters that can generate rapidly tunable, low phase noise and low intensity noise millimeter wave sub-carriers. Using an electro-optic Nd:LiNbO3 microchip laser in an optical heterodyning scheme, we designed a simple, robust, monolithic and low-cost optical transmitter, that can generate tunable sub-carriers from DC to 50 GHz. Furthermore, we demonstrate that due to the unique approach, whereby the tuning and lasing occur within the same crystal, the dynamics of the tuning process are fast
Keywords :
electro-optical devices; laser beam applications; laser cavity resonators; laser tuning; lithium compounds; microwave photonics; millimetre wave generation; multiwave mixing; neodymium; optical phase locked loops; optical radar; optical transmitters; solid lasers; 0 to 50 GHz; LiNbO3:Nd; Nd:LiNbO3 microchip laser; biomedical imaging; electro-optic microchip laser; frequency chirped lidar-radar system; low intensity noise; low phase noise; low-cost optical transmitters; millimeter wave subcarrier; monolithic optical transmitter; optical generation; optical heterodyning scheme; optical/wireless communications; rapidly tunable MM-wave subcarrier; Biomedical optical imaging; Chirp; Frequency; Laser tuning; Optical mixing; Optical noise; Optical transmitters; Optical tuning; Phase noise; Tunable circuits and devices;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave and Optoelectronics Conference, 1999. SBMO/IEEE MTT-S, APS and LEOS - IMOC '99. International
Conference_Location :
Rio de Janeiro
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-5807-4
DOI :
10.1109/IMOC.1999.866262
