Active mode lock optoelectronic oscillator based on the simulated Brillouin scattering effect

Abstract

An active mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator (AML-OEO) based on the simulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) effect without an electrical filter is demonstrated here. By using phase modulation and SBS-based selective sideband amplification, the central frequency of the proposed SBS-AML-OEO is easily adjusted by simply changing the pump laser frequency instead of the filters. A microwave frequency comb signal with an adjustable central frequency and fixed bandwidth are generated by injecting a mode-locking external RF synchronizing with the free spectral ranging FSR. In addition, the harmonic SBS-AML-OEO is also achieved by harmonic signal injection. The proposed method reveals a simple solution to tune the central frequency and has the potential to be integrated on a chip since there is no structure changing in the scheme.