Microwave Oscillators Based on Nonlinear WGM Resonators

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

Friday, September 01 2006

Optical signals are phase-modulated with spectrally pure microwave signals.

Optical oscillators that exploit resonantly enhanced four-wave mixing in nonlinear whispering- gallery- mode (WGM) resonators are under investigation for potential utility as low-power, ultra-miniature sources of stable, spectrally pure microwave signals. There are numerous potential uses for such oscillators in radar systems, communication systems, and scientific instrumentation.

The resonator in an oscillator of this type is made of a crystalline material that exhibits cubic Kerr nonlinearity, which supports the four-photon parametric process also known as four-wave mixing. The oscillator can be characterized as all optical in the sense that the entire process of generation of the microwave signal takes place within the WGM resonator. The resonantly enhanced four-wave mixing yields coherent, phase-modulated optical signals at frequencies governed by the resonator structure. The frequency of the phase-modulation signal, which is in the microwave range, equals the difference between the frequencies of the optical signals; hence, this frequency is also governed by the resonator structure. Hence, further, the microwave signal is stable and can be used as a reference signal.

The figure schematically depicts the apparatus used in a proof-of-principle experiment. Linearly polarized pump light was generated by an yttrium aluminum garnet laser at a wavelength of 1.32 µm. By use of a 90:10 fiber-optic splitter and optical fibers, some of the laser light was sent into a delay line and some was transmitted to one face of glass coupling prism, that, in turn, coupled the laser light into a crystalline CaF₂ WGM disk resonator that had a resonance quality factor (Q) of 6 × 109. The output light of the resonator was collected via another face of the coupling prism and a single mode optical fiber, which transmitted the light to a 50:50 fiber-optic splitter. One output of this splitter was sent to a slow photodiode to obtain a DC signal for locking the laser to a particular resonator mode. The other output of this splitter was combined with the delayed laser signal in another 50:50 fiber-optic splitter used as a combiner. The output of the combiner was fed to a fast photodiode that demodulated light and generated microwave signal.