Microwave-photonic frequency multiplication utilizing optical four-wave mixing and fiber Bragg gratings

A novel technique for optical multiplication of a millimeter-wave carrier is presented. It utilizes optical four-wave mixing (FWM) in a highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) and the filtering properties of matched fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). The technique includes a sixfold electrical frequency multiplication in the optical domain. In this experiment, the multiplicator is driven electronically at 6.67 GHz, and the created millimeter wave has a frequency of 40 GHz. The generated carrier has a linewidth lower than 3 Hz and a carrier to noise ratio exceeding 50 dB. Furthermore, successful data transmission over the optical fiber of 2.5 Gb/s on the generated millimeter-wave carrier was performed.