Photonic RF Down-Converter Based on Optomechanical Oscillation

Hossein‐Zadeh, Mani; Vahala, Kerry J.

doi:10.1109/lpt.2007.912991

Cited by 49 publications

(35 citation statements)

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“…Characterization of the phase noise and oscillation frequency have confirmed that the microtoroid OMO is potentially important in certain rf-photonic systems. 7,8 We demonstrate that partial amplitude modulation of the optical input power can lock both frequency and phase of the optomechanical oscillation to that of the external oscillator ͑used to modulate the input optical power͒. Preliminary experimental results confirm that injection locking in an OMO exhibits the characteristics of injection locking in electronic oscillators.…”

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Observation of injection locking in an optomechanical RF oscillator

Hossein‐Zadeh

Vahala

2008

LEOS 2008 - 21st Annual Meeting of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society

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Injection locking of a radiation-pressure optomechanical oscillator is demonstrated through external modulation of the optical pump power near the optomechanical oscillation frequency. It is shown that the frequency and phase of a microtoroidal optomechanical oscillator can be locked to those of an electronic oscillator ͑or any other signal͒ that can modulate the optical input power and whose frequency is within the lock range. © 2008 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.3028024͔Injection locking is a well-known effect in both selfsustained electronic and photonic oscillators ͑lasers͒. When a periodic signal with a frequency close to the oscillation frequency and large enough amplitude is injected into a selfsustained oscillator, the phase and frequency of the oscillator can be locked to that of the injected signal.1 Here this phenomenon is investigated in an optomechanical oscillator ͑OMO͒.2-4 OMOs are driven by radiation pressure and rely upon "dynamic back action" created when a continuouswave ͑cw͒ optical pump is blue-detuned relative to a resonance of an optical resonator that also features high-Q mechanical modes. 5 The OMOs of this study are based on high-Q silica microtoroids.2-4 The high optical Q factor and the unique geometry of toroid resonator ͑that enables efficient coupling between optical and mechanical degrees of freedom through radiation pressure͒ lead to self-sustained rf mechanical oscillations of the microtoroid structure 2-4 ͑even to gigahertz frequencies 6 ͒. Characterization of the phase noise and oscillation frequency have confirmed that the microtoroid OMO is potentially important in certain rf-photonic systems.7, 8 We demonstrate that partial amplitude modulation of the optical input power can lock both frequency and phase of the optomechanical oscillation to that of the external oscillator ͑used to modulate the input optical power͒. Preliminary experimental results confirm that injection locking in an OMO exhibits the characteristics of injection locking in electronic oscillators. Figure 1 shows the experimental arrangement used to study injection locking in the microtoroid OMO. The optical power from a tunable laser passes through a Mach-Zehnder ͑MZ͒ modulator and is coupled into and out of the microtoroid optical resonator using a fiber-taper coupler. The amplitude of the optical input power ͑P in ͒ is partially modulated by a single tone rf signal from a tunable rf synthesizer applied on the MZ modulator. The modulation index is thereby used to control the strength of the weaker injection-locking signal ͑modulated fraction of P in ͒ in comparison to the pump ͑cw fraction of P in ͒. The spectrum of optical power that is coupled out of the microtoroid is then analyzed in a rf spectrum analyzer. Also, the phase of the output signal is compared to that of the electronic input signal ͑injected signal͒ using a lock-in amplifier. When the amplitude of the injected signal is large enough and its frequency ͑f inj ͒ is close to optomechanical oscillation frequency ͑f OMO ͒, we obse...

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Observation of injection locking in an optomechanical RF oscillator

Hossein‐Zadeh

Vahala

2008

LEOS 2008 - 21st Annual Meeting of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society

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“…The nonlinearity of the optomechanical transfer function manifests itself through the appearance of harmonics of the mechanical eigen frequencies within the spectrum of the modulated optical power. The strength of the nonlinear behavior for an OMO is controlled by P and ∆ 0 [23], [24]. For applications where a single-tone oscillation is required, these parameters may be adjusted to obtain linear optomechanical oscillation.…”

Section: B Nonlinearity Of Optomechanical Oscillation and Rf Mixingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fig. 16(a) shows the diagram of the experimental setup used for the proof-of-concept demonstration [24].…”

Section: Optomechanical Homodyne Rf Receivermentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Optomechanical Oscillator on a Silicon Chip

Hossein‐Zadeh

Vahala

2010

IEEE J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron.

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Abstract-The recent observation on radiation-pressure-driven self-sustained oscillation in high-Q optical microresonators has created new possibilities for development of photonic devices that benefit from unique functionalities offered by these "optomechanical oscillators" (OMOs). Here, we review the physics, fundamental characteristics, and potential applications of OMOs using the silica microtoroidal OMO as an example.

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“…This letter reports an on-chip all-optical phase sensitive amplifier where, in contrast, the nonlinearity arises, not from an intrinsic optical nonlinearity, but rather from the radiation pressure driven dynamical interplay between the optical and mechanical structure of a microcavity optomechanical system. Such backaction amplifiers [5] are but one example of the rapid progress currently occurring in the emergent field of cavity optomechanics based on the dynamical backaction between light and matter; with recent demonstrations of mechanical cooling[6-8], optomechanical induced transparency (OMIT) [9], regenerative mechanical oscillation [6,10,11], optomechanical induced chaotic oscillation [12], tunable phonon lasers [13] and even technological applications such as a photonic radio frequency (RF) down converter [14].The first demonstration of backaction amplification, and only previous all-optical demonstration, used an electronically locked Fabry-Perot cavity with milligram effective mass [5]. However, due to the close proximity of parametric instability, operation was precluded near the threshold for optomechanical parametric oscillation where the amplification is strongly enhanced.…”

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Near threshold all-optical backaction amplifier

Bowen

2012

Applied Physics Letters

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A near threshold all-optical backaction amplifier is realized. Operating near threshold in an integrated micronscale architecture allows a nearly three orders of magnitude improvement in both gain and optical power requirements over the only previous all-optical implementation, with 37 dB of gain achieved for only 12 µW of input power. Minor adjustments to parameters allows optical filtering with narrow bandwidth dictated by the mechanical quality factor. Operation at cryogenic temperatures may enable standard quantum limit surpassing measurements and ponderomotive squeezing.Optical amplifiers are ubiquitous in present-day communications and sensing technologies, and are fundamental to many high precision scientific endeavors. The classic example is the erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) which, with pump power and gain of around 100 mW and 20 dB respectively[1], dramatically reduces power consumption and speeds up performance in long-haul fiber optic communications, enabling modern optical telecommunications networks. It is well known that phase sensitive amplifiers based on the optical parametric nonlinearity offer the means to both further reduce pump power, with nonlinear thresholds at the level of microwatts [2,3], and boost noise performance past the 3 dB quantum limited noise figure of phase insensitive amplifiers [4]. This letter reports an on-chip all-optical phase sensitive amplifier where, in contrast, the nonlinearity arises, not from an intrinsic optical nonlinearity, but rather from the radiation pressure driven dynamical interplay between the optical and mechanical structure of a microcavity optomechanical system. Such backaction amplifiers [5] are but one example of the rapid progress currently occurring in the emergent field of cavity optomechanics based on the dynamical backaction between light and matter; with recent demonstrations of mechanical cooling[6-8], optomechanical induced transparency (OMIT) [9], regenerative mechanical oscillation [6,10,11], optomechanical induced chaotic oscillation [12], tunable phonon lasers [13] and even technological applications such as a photonic radio frequency (RF) down converter [14].The first demonstration of backaction amplification, and only previous all-optical demonstration, used an electronically locked Fabry-Perot cavity with milligram effective mass [5]. However, due to the close proximity of parametric instability, operation was precluded near the threshold for optomechanical parametric oscillation where the amplification is strongly enhanced. This limited the gain achieved to 8 dB, with 10 mW of input optical power. Here, by contrast, the optomechanical resonator is an integrated monolithic silica microtoroid [15] with microgram effective mass, high mechanical stability, and ultrahigh optical quality factor. Critically, the thermal bistability [16] of silica provides strong thermo-optic locking to the blue detuned side of optical resonance [17,18]. This allowed operation close to parametric instability, resulting in

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Photonic RF Down-Converter Based on Optomechanical Oscillation

Abstract: Abstract-We demonstrate all-optical radio-frequency (RF) down-conversion in a silica microtoroid optomechanical (OM) oscillator. Preliminary results show that the OM oscillator can simultaneously serve as mixer and local oscillator in a photonic homodyne RF-receiver architecture.

Cited by 49 publications

References 5 publications

Observation of injection locking in an optomechanical RF oscillator

Observation of injection locking in an optomechanical RF oscillator

An Optomechanical Oscillator on a Silicon Chip

Near threshold all-optical backaction amplifier

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