Ultra-broadband Photonic Harmonic Mixer Based on Optical Comb Generation

We propose a novel photonic harmonic mixer operating at frequencies up to the millimeter-wave (MMW) band. By combining a broadband fiber-wireless signal with highorder harmonics of a fundamental local oscillator in an optical frequency comb generator, frequency down-conversion can be implemented without using costly ultra-broadband photodiode. It is theoretically shown that the down-conversion efficiency and the bandwidth of the mixer is highly dependent on the optical modulation indices and the fundamental frequency of comb lines. Down-conversion of a W-band (75-110GHz) fiberwireless signal is experimentally demonstrated. Moreover, the error vector magnitude (EVM) performance of a multi-gigabit quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signal at 62.5, 82.5 and 102.5GHz carrier frequencies is studied to evaluate the downconversion efficiency. The proposed photonic harmonic mixer can be a candidate for applications in high capacity fiber-wireless communication systems.