Carrier generation and data transmission on millimeter-wave bands using two-mode locked Fabry-Perot slave lasers

This paper concerns an optical millimeter-wave signal generator for fiber-based millimeter-wave systems. The millimeter-wave signal generator is based on two-mode injection locking of a Fabry-Perot (F-P) laser. The millimeter-wave signal can be induced by self-heterodyne detection of the locked two modes in a high-speed photodetector (PD). The locking characteristics of the F-P slave laser and the tunability for the millimeter-wave carrier frequency are demonstrated. When the F-P laser is directly modulated by data signals, the locked two modes are modulated simultaneously. The data signals can then be up-converted to the millimeter-wave band at the PD output. By this direct modulation method, the effect of fiber chromatic dispersion on the millimeter-wave signal components at the PD output can be moderate according to mixing of amplitude and phase modulation on the locked two modes. In virtue of the wide response of the F-P laser, relatively high-speed data (2.5 Gbit/s nonreturn to zero (NRZ)-ASK or 622 Mbit/s NRZ-BPSK) on the millimeter-wave band (52 or 60 GHz) can be transmitted on a 32-km single-mode fiber without bit error. A wide tunable range (56-63 GHz) for the central frequency of the millimeter-wave signals and a wide optical bandwidth (1530-60 nm) of the F-P slave laser are also confirmed by the bit-error measurements of the transmitted data signals. Index Terms--Fabry-Perot (F-P) lasers, fiber-radio systems, millimeter-wave links, optical generation of millimeter-wave signals.