An Investigation about Optical Millimeter-wave Generation Technology

Optical millimeter-wave (MMW) generation technology generates high-frequency MMW signals by an all-optical method, which overcomes the limitations of the frequency response and bandwidth of electronic frequency multiplier. It has become a research focus of MMW signal generation because of the advantages of low cost, simple structure and low phase noise. In this paper, five optical MMW generation methods are investigated, including direct modulation method, optical heterodyne method, external modulation method, optical injection locking method and four-wave mixing (FWM) method. By analyzing the experimental setups and principles of the above schemes, their advantages and disadvantages are presented. Finally, the prospects of the future research tend of MMW generation are given.