Opto-Electronic Oscillator
Frequency
Standards Laboratory
- The optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) comprises a novel
photonic oscillator that converts continuous-light energy into stable spectrally
pure microwave signals. It consists of a pump laser and a feedback circuit
including an intensity modulator, an optical-fiber delay line, a photodector,
an amplifer, and a filter. A quasi-linear theory has been developed that
describes the properties of the oscillator and their experimental verifications.
Our findings indicate that the OEO can generate ultrastable, spectrally
pure microwave-reference signals up to 75 Ghz with a phase noise lower
than -140dBc/Hz at 10 KHz. The OEO is a special voltage-controlled oscillator
with an optical-output port and can be synchronized to a reference source
by means of optical injection locking, electrical injection locking, and
a phase-locked loop. Other OEO applications include high-frequency reference
regeneration and distribution, high-gain frequency multiplication, comb
frequency and pulse generation, carrier recovery and clock recovery.
Dual
Loop Diagram
For More Information
JPL Time
and Frequency Research