Photonic microwave generation with high-power photodiodes

Published

May 14, 2013

Author(s)

Tara M. Fortier, Franklyn J. Quinlan, Archita Hati, Craig W. Nelson, Jennifer A. Taylor, Yang Fu, Joe Campbell, Scott A. Diddams

Abstract

We utilize and characterize high-power, high-linearity modified uni-traveling carrier (MUTC) photodiodes for low-phase-noise photonic microwave generation based on optical frequency division. When illuminated with 980 nm picosecond pulses from a repetition-rate-multiplied GHz Ti:sapphire modelocked laser we achieve 10 GHz signal strengths up to +14 dBm. Using these photodiodes, we generate a 10 GHz microwave tone with less than 500 attoseconds absolute integrated timing jitter (1 Hz - 10 MHz) and a record-low noise floor of -177 dBc/Hz. We also present a characterization of the electrical response, amplitude-to-phase conversion, saturation and residual noise of the MUTC photodiodes.

Citation

Optics Letters

Volume

38

Issue

10

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

high stability optica reference, low noise microwave generation, microwave photonics, optical frequency comb

Citation

Fortier, T. , Quinlan, F. , Hati, A. , Nelson, C. , Taylor, J. , Fu, Y. , Campbell, J. and Diddams, S. (2013), Photonic microwave generation with high-power photodiodes, Optics Letters (Accessed October 10, 2025)