High-Spectral-Purity Millimeter-Wave Signal Optical Generation

In this paper, novel approaches for millimeter-wave signal generation using double-sideband suppressed-carrier modulation and four-wave mixing are proposed and demonstrated. The millimeter-wave signal is generated at a photodetector by beating the optical sidebands, which are gained from intensity modulation and after semiconductor optical amplifiers. In the proposed methods, the generated millimeter-wave signal has a frequency that is double, quadruple, sextuple, 12 times, or even 18 times higher than the microwave drive signal. And, it has quite good gain flatness with extremely high-spectral-purity and stability. The phase noise performance of the generated millimeter wave is investigated. The 3-dB linewidth of the millimeter wave has no broadening after propagating through 20-km standard single-mode fiber.