Coherent photonic Terahertz transmitters compatible with direct comb modulation

Abstract

We present a novel approach to coherent photonic THz systems supporting complex modulation. The proposed scheme uses a single optical path avoiding the problems of current implementations, which include: phase decorrelation, 3-dB power loss, and polarization and power matching circuits. More importantly, we show that our novel approach is compatible with direct modulation of the output of an optical frequency comb (i.e., not requiring the demultiplexing of two tones from the comb), further simplifying the system and enabling an increase in the transmitted RF power for a fixed average optical power injected into the photodiode.