Frequency quadrupling microwave signal generation based on an optoelectronic oscillator with low phase noise

A frequency-multiplying radio frequency (RF) source based on the optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with low phase noise has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. With the optical carrier suppression process, the frequency quadrupling can be achieved by biasing the intensity modulators at the minimum transmission point simultaneously inside and outside the OEO loop. In the proof-of-concept experiment, the high quality RF signal at 21.44 GHz is obtained with the phase noise of -111.19 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset frequency. The proposed scheme provides a novel strategy for high frequency and low phase noise signal generation based on low frequency devices.