Photonically Assisted Microwave Signal Generation Based on Two Cascaded Polarization Modulators With a Tunable Multiplication Factor

Abstract

Filterless photonic generation of microwave signals with various frequency multiplication factors via series connected polarization modulators is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. Frequency octupling, sextupling, or quadrupling microwave signal can be obtained when the polarization state of the light wave, the modulation indices of the modulators, and the phase of the radio frequency (RF) driving signal are suitably set. The optical sideband suppression ratios and RF spurious suppression ratios of the generated frequency multiplication signals are measured. Besides, the frequency-tunable ability and phase noise are analyzed.