Open AccessCross-referenced deadband-free microwave frequency measurement with cascaded-four-wave-mixing-based photonic harmonic down-conversion
Author(s) -
Xinhai Zou,
Shangjian Zhang,
Heng Wang,
Yangxue Ma,
Xuyan Zhang,
Zhiyao Zhang,
Yong Liu
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.27.023714
Subject(s) - photonics , optics , harmonic , microwave , physics , frequency multiplier , intermediate frequency , local oscillator , optoelectronics , acoustics , radio frequency , phase noise , computer science , telecommunications , cmos , quantum mechanics
A cross-referenced and deadband-free method with photonic harmonic down-conversion is proposed for microwave frequency measurement based on cascaded-four-wave-mixing (CFWM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers. The proposed method enables ultra-wide and accurate frequency measurement with low-frequency spectrum detection, and at the same time achieves deadband-free and multi-tone frequency measurement by cross-referenced frequency discrimination. For a proof of concept, microwave signal measurement is experimentally demonstrated up to the 40 GHz frequency range with an 0.2-MHz measurement error. The frequency measurement features ease of configuration by only changing the low-frequency electrical local oscillators of the CFWM-based photonic harmonic down-converter.