Frequency quadrupling optoelectronic oscillator using a single polarization modulator in a Sagnac loop

We propose and demonstrate a novel and cost efficient method to generating a frequency quadrupling optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) using a single polarization modulator (PolM) in a Sagnac loop. The OEO loop and the Sagnac loop share the same PolM. In the OEO loop, the PolM is used to generate the fundamental microwave signal. In the Sagnac loop, the joint use of the PolM, a polarization controller (PC), and a polarization beam splitter (PBS) is equivalent to an intensity modulator. The odd order sidebands of the modulated signal are suppressed by biasing the equivalent intensity modulator at the maximum transmission point. Moreover, the undesired optical carrier is also eliminated by bidirectional use of the PolM. As a result, only the two second order sidebands are left. The beating between the two second order sidebands in a photodetector (PD) generates a microwave signal at the frequency corresponding to four times of the fundamental tone. A frequency quadrupling microwave signal at the frequency of 39.74 GHz with a phase noise of −100.14 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz frequency offset was experimentally generated.