Integrated wideband optical frequency combs with high stability and their application in microwave photonic filters

An integrated wideband optical frequency comb (OFC) based on a semiconductor quantum dot laser is realized with high stability. The OFC module is packaged in our lab. A circuit which is designed to provide a low-ripple current and control the temperature regards as a servo system to enhance the stability of the OFC. The frequency stability of the OFC is 2.7×10−9 (Allan Variance). The free spectral range (FSR) of the OFC is 40 GHz and the number of comb lines is up to 55. The flatness of the OFC over span of 4 nm can be limited to 0.5 dB. Negative coefficients microwave photonic filters with multiple taps are generated based on the proposed OFC. For the 10 taps microwave photonic filter, the pass-band at 8.74 GHz has a 3 dB bandwidth of 630 MHz with 16.58 dB side-lobe suppression. Compared with the published microwave photonic filters, the proposed system is more stable, of more compact structures, and of less power consumption.