Vol. 49, Issue 1, pp. 27-36

Abstract

A novel scheme for photonic generation of broadly tunable radio frequency signal using a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) is demonstrated. A continuous wave emitted from the laser diode is modulated by a Mach–Zehnder modulator, then the modulated optical carrier is injected into the RSOA. Due to the four-wave mixing effect in the RSOA, the limited frequency components of the modulated signal are expanded, which directly lead to the generation of a wide frequency comb. Two optical tunable bandpass filters are parallelly connected to select the desired sidebands, which are launched into a photodetector or photomixer to generate radio frequency signal by beating. Using the proposed method, the bandwidth of generated radio frequency signal can range from 20 to 300 GHz.