Frequency combs are optical spectra composed of a set of discrete equally spaced lines. Such spectra can be generated by diverse sources such as mode-locked lasers, resonators, or electro-optic modulators. This last possibility has shown a growing interest in the recent years for its advantageous features in providing high repetition rates, intrinsic mutual coherence, or high power per comb lines. Moreover, applications of electro-optic modulator-based combs have flourished in fundamental physics, spectroscopy, or instrumental calibrations. In this paper, we present the most recent progresses made on frequency combs generated by electro-optic modulators, along with the applications where these combs have shown a particular interest.

Electro-optic frequency combs

Besides distinct features on RF/optical signal generation, optoelectronic oscillators (OEOs) have also been rapidly developed as emerging techniques towards sensing, measurement, and detection. In this paper, we start with the conceptual architecture and the analytical model of OEOs. Then, three operation principles behind sensing, measurement, and detection applications are categorized, including the variation on the time delay of loop, the passband reconfiguration of microwave photonic filter in loop, and the oscillation gain from injection locking, which clearly clarify the X-to-frequency mapping (X denotes target parameter or signal) for supporting practical solutions and approaches. Next, a comprehensive review to advances in OEO-based sensing, measurement, and detection applications is presented, including length change and distance measurement, refractive index estimation, load and strain sensing, temperature and acoustic sensing, optical clock recovery, and low-power RF signal detection. As a new application example, a novel approach for in-line position finding is proposed. When a long fiber Bragg grating inserted into OEO is locally heated to slightly broaden its reflection spectrum, the target position heated is mapped into the oscillating frequency shift, according to the first operation principle. A sensitivity of 254.66 kHz/cm is obtained for position finding in the experiment. Afterward, solutions for calibration and stabilization are briefly introduced, which enable us to improve the accuracy and reliability. Finally, features and future prospects on the sensing, measurement, and detection applications are discussed, such as compact and integrated OEOs.

Optoelectronic Oscillators (OEOs) to Sensing, Measurement, and Detection

Time-delayed optoelectronic oscillators are at the center of a large body of scientific literature. The complex behavior of these nonlinear oscillators has been thoroughly explored both theoretically and experimentally, leading to a better understanding of their dynamical properties. Beyond fundamental research, these systems have also inspired a wide and diverse set of applications, such as optical chaos communications, pseudorandom number generation, optoelectronic machine learning based on reservoir computing, ultrapure microwave generation, optical pulse-train synthesis, and sensing. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive survey of this field, to outline the latest achievements, and discuss the main challenges ahead.

Optoelectronic oscillators with time-delayed feedback

Elastic optical networks (EON) have been proposed to meet the network capacity and dynamicity challenges. Hardware and software resource optimization and re-configurability are key enablers for EONs. Recently, innovative multi-carrier transmission techniques have been extensively investigated to realize high capacity (Tb/s) flexible transceivers. In addition to standard telecommunication lasers, optical carrier generators based on optical frequency combs (OFC) have also been considered with expectations of reduced cost and inventory, improved spectral efficiency, and flexibility. A wide range of OFC generation techniques have been proposed in the literature over the past few years. It is imperative to summarize the state of the art, compare and assess these diverse techniques from a practical perspective. In this survey, we identify salient features of optical multicarrier generators, review and compare these techniques both from a physical and network layer perspective. OFC demultiplexing/filtering techniques have also been reviewed. In addition to transmission performance, the impact of such sources on the network performance and real-world deployment strategies with reference to cost, power consumption, and level of flexibility have also been discussed. Field trials, integrated solutions, and flexibility demonstrations are also reported. Finally, open issues and possible future directions that can lead to real network deployment are highlighted.

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A Survey of Optical Carrier Generation Techniques for Terabit Capacity Elastic Optical Networks

The optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years as a high-performance microwave source. Thanks to the high quality-factor (Q-factor) provided by the optical delay line, the OEO can generate spectrally pure microwave signals with ultralow phase noise. Various approaches for realization of OEO architectures for the generation of single-frequency microwave signals have been demonstrated in the past two decades. Seeded by the microwave signal generated by OEO, the generation of complex microwave waveforms has been demonstrated, which can be used in applications such as radar and communication systems. OEO has also been demonstrated to perform other specific functionalities in different applications, including optical pulses and frequency comb generation, optical sensing, low-power microwave signal detection, and optical signal processing. This paper reviews the developments of OEO over the past two decades. An integrated OEO with monolithically integrated photonic parts and radio frequency subsections is reported as a promising example toward the monolithic integration of OEO. Key features of OEO and prospects for future development of the integration of OEO are also described.

Toward Monolithic Integration of OEOs: From Systems to Chips

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a simple and cost-effective ultra-flat optical frequency comb (OFC) generator by directly modulating a standalone dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DP-MZM) with only one radio frequency (RF) signal without any other assisting devices. Five- and seven-tone OFC with exactly the same intensity can be theoretically generated using two sets of parameters obtained by solving equations derived from the DP-MZM modulation model. In good agreement with the theoretical results, five- and seven-tone OFC with flatness of 0.1 and 1 dB are experimentally demonstrated, respectively.

Ultra-flat optical frequency comb generator using a single-driven dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator.

A novel multifunctional frequency-doubling optoelectronic oscillator (FD-OEO) mainly based on a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) cascaded with a phase modulator (PM) and a subsequent optical bandpass filter (OBPF) is proposed. We experimentally demonstrate simultaneous operations of frequency-doubled optical clock (FD-OC) recovery, low-duty-cycle dual-wavelength prescaled OC recovery and error-free fourfold time division demultiplexing with the proposed OEO injected with a 4 × 25-Gb/s optical time-division-multiplexing (OTDM) signal. We show that the proposed FD-OEO operates well for both the differential phase shift keying (DPSK) and on-off keying (OOK) modulation formats. The extracted dual-wavelength prescaled OC is proved to be nearly transform-limited with Gaussian-like shape. Furthermore, all four 25-Gb/s tributaries can be selectively demultiplexed by adjusting the phase shifters in the OEO loop. The power penalty at a bit error rate (BER) of 10(-9) is measured to be 2.4 dB, 1.2 dB for the best channel for DPSK signal and to be 2.5 dB, 1.1 dB for the best channel for OOK signal. In addition, as an extra benefit of the OEO, low-phase-noise prescaled electrical clock (EC) is also extracted.

Gaussian-like dual-wavelength prescaled clock recovery with simultaneous frequency-doubled clock recovery using an optoelectronic oscillator.

We propose to insert group velocity dispersion between cascaded phase and amplitude modulation for ultraflat optical frequency comb (OFC) generation. With the dispersion, the sinusoidally varied chirp of the continuous wave light induced by phase modulation becomes linear within a relatively wide time interval. This is useful to improve the flatness of the generated OFC by directly cascaded phase and amplitude modulation. Simulation shows a flat comb of 37 tones within 0.88 dB power variation when the modulation index of the phase modulation reaches 20. An ultraflat comb generator with 10 GHz frequency spacing is also demonstrated. The flatness of the 15 tones around the center wavelength has been improved to 0.98 dB.

Frequency chirp linearization for ultraflat optical frequency comb generation based on group velocity dispersion

Rectangular-shaped optical frequency comb generation with Nyquist temporal waveforms using dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators is proposed. Nyquist pulse with 3.66% duty cycle and 25-tone frequency combs with flatness within 0.5 dB is generated.

Cost-effective optical Nyquist pulse generator with ultraflat optical spectrum using dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators

We demonstrate a simple, robust, and cost-effective method of generating high-speed multiwavelength picosecond optical pulses. This method is based on chirp compression of phase-modulated light, followed by nonlinear pulse compression and reshaping with a double-side Mamyshev reshaper. We show that this method becomes power efficient when the repetition rate is increased to 25 GHz. Wavelength-tunable optical pulses with a repetition rate of 25 GHz and pulse width of ∼2  ps, which can be temporally multiplexed to 100 GHz, are experimentally obtained over a large spectral range with moderate electrical and optical power. Simultaneous pulse generation on four wavelengths is demonstrated.

Qiang Wang

Papers

Ultra-flat optical frequency comb generator using a single-driven dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator.

Gaussian-like dual-wavelength prescaled clock recovery with simultaneous frequency-doubled clock recovery using an optoelectronic oscillator.

Frequency chirp linearization for ultraflat optical frequency comb generation based on group velocity dispersion

Cost-effective optical Nyquist pulse generator with ultraflat optical spectrum using dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators

Multiwavelength 25-GHz picosecond pulse generation with phase modulation and double-side Mamyshev reshaping.