Title :
Terahertz Optoelectronic Down-Conversion and Phase-Locking Through Four-Wave Mixing
Author :
Rolland, Antoine ; Pouget, Lucien ; Brunel, Marc ; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim
Author_Institution :
Inst. de Phys. de Rennes, Univ. of Rennes 1, Rennes, France
Abstract :
Optoelectronic down-conversion of a terahertz optical beatnote to a RF intermediate frequency is performed with a standard Mach-Zehnder modulator followed by a zero dispersion-slope highly nonlinear fiber. The two interleaved optical combs obtained by four-wave mixing are shown to contain more than 75 harmonics enabling to conveniently recover the phase noise of a beatnote at 770 GHz at ~500 MHz. This simple four-wave mixing assisted down-conversion architecture is implemented to a two-frequency solid-state laser in order to directly phase-lock its frequency difference. This is illustrated on a beatnote at 168 GHz directly phase locked to the local oscillator at 10 MHz.
Keywords :
Mach-Zehnder interferometers; laser mode locking; multiwave mixing; optical communication equipment; optical fibre dispersion; optical modulation; optoelectronic devices; phase noise; solid lasers; terahertz wave devices; RF intermediate frequency; direct phase-locking; four-wave mixing assisted down-conversion architecture; frequency 10 MHz; frequency 168 GHz; frequency 770 GHz; frequency difference; interleaved optical combs; local oscillator; phase noise; standard Mach-Zehnder modulator; terahertz optical beatnote; terahertz optoelectronic down-conversion; two-frequency solid-state laser; zero dispersion-slope highly nonlinear fiber; Fiber nonlinear optics; Frequency modulation; Optical fibers; Optical mixing; Phase noise; Optoelectronics; four-wave mixing; mm-wave and THz; solid-state lasers;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LPT.2014.2342379