Optical mm-Wave Synthesizer Using Semiconductor Ring Laser (a Review)
M.I. Memona,b, M. Siraja, H. Fathallaha
aPrince Sultan Advanced Techno. Research Institute (PSATRI), King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
bCOMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
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Millimeter wave (mm-wave) technology is significant for military needs and applications due to its numerous advantages, such as huge bandwidth, deploying small antenna and high radar resolution. Due to atmospheric influence, mm-wave is important in short-range applications such as fire control radar. Similarly for the next-generation communication and military applications, high-speed radio over fiber networks are very crucial. In this paper, a review of the generation and modulation of millimeter-wave signal optically using semiconductor ring laser (SRL) has been done. The phenomena of optical injection locking and four-wave mixing are exploited in SRL to generate radio frequency (RF) optical signals. The signals with huge data rate can be transferred directly from an intensity modulated optical signal onto a RF optical signal with RF frequency tunable in steps of the free spectrum range (FSR) of SRL. They can be converted with flexible RF modulation formats over the optical carrier.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.127.1274
PACS numbers: 42.55.Px, 42.65.Hw, 84.40.-x