Photonic systems for tunable mm-wave and THz wireless communications

Abstract

In this paper we present two different techniques for photonic generation of millimeter and THz waves. Each of them tackles the phase noise problem associated with optical sources in a different way. The first one relays on the heterodyne down-conversion of two phase noise correlated optical tones. The correlation is achieved by generation of an optical frequency comb. To select one of the optical lines we use an optical phase lock loop, which besides enabling a frequency offset between output and input, can provide optical gain and is highly selective. The second one relays on the envelope detection of a single sideband-with carrier signal. In this approach the photonic remote antenna unit is implemented as monolithically integrated photonic chip.