Generation of a 49-GHz, high-repetition-rate, all-polarization-maintaining, frequency-locked multicarrier

Frequency-locked multicarrier with high repetition rate is an ideal tool for microwave channelization and optical communications. To meet the needs of those applications, we propose a multicarrier laser with a repetition frequency of 49 GHz. The I/Q Modulator (IQM) works at the Single-Frequency Shifting (SSB) state by carefully optimizing the Radio Frequencies (RFs) and their three bias points, resulting in a signal-to-noise ratio of 27.5 dB. The Recirculating Frequency Shifter (RFS) architecture is employed to generate an optical comb with high flatness. By optimizing the power of RFs for the balance of gain and loss of intracavity, we successfully generate 28 frequency-locked subcarriers with flatnesses lower than 3 dB and Tone-to-Noise Ratios (TNR) larger than 29 dB. Meanwhile, an Fabry-Perot (FP) etalon is used to increase the repetition-rate, resulting in 14 frequency-locked subcarriers with flatnesses lower than 2.7 dB, TNR larger than 19 dB, average powers of more than 9 dBm and carrier spacings at 49 GHz. By applying all-polarization-maintaining components and integrated technology, the system shows one-push and long-term running properties. The standard deviation of power jitter of the multi-carrier frequency comb through the half hour is only 0.5%, which shows that this scheme has great potential applications in channel communications and microwave channelization.