Performance evaluation of opto-electronic oscillators employing photonic crystal fibers

Abstract

Stable microwave oscillators are realized based on high quality factor resonators, which in turn are realized using acoustic, electromagnetic, and optical technologies. Since a large quality factor could be achieved using small and long fiber delay lines, optical techniques are particularly attractive. Among various techniques, opto-electronic oscillators (OEOs) have demonstrated the lowest close-to-carrier phase noise compared to all other techniques. Nevertheless, the temperature sensitivity of OEOs is of concern due to changes in the index of refraction of optical fibers. This paper provides results regarding the performance of an OEO at 10 GHz and performance comparison is made in using both standard (SMF-28) and solid-core photonic crystal fiber (SC-PCF). The OEO using SC-PCF fiber delay lines exhibits a factor of three reductions in its temperature sensitivity over SMF-28 based OEO. © 2006 EuMA.