TeraHertz Photonics for Wireless Communications

Optical fibre transmission has enabled greatly increased transmission rates with 10 Gb/s common in local area networks. End users find wireless access highly convenient for mobile communication. However, limited spectrum availability at microwave frequencies results in per-user transmission rates limited to much lower values, e.g., 500 Mb/s for 5-GHz band IEEE 802.11ac. Extending the high data-rate capacity of optical fiber transmission to wireless devices requires greatly increased carrier frequencies. This paper will describe how photonic techniques can enable ultrahigh capacity wireless data distribution and transmission using signals at millimeter-wave and TeraHertz (THz) frequencies.