The Opto-Electronic Oscillator (OEO):

Review and Recent Progress

Lute Maleki
OEwaves, Inc.
465 N. Halstead Street, Suite 140
Pasadena, California 91107

Abstract—This paper reviews developments over the past two 1). This feedback loop can generate self-sustained oscillation
decades related to the Opto-Electronic Oscillator (OEO). if its overall gain is larger than the loss, and the waves
Various approaches for realization of the OEO architecture are circulating in it add up in phase. The former requirement can
discussed. Recent advances related to generation of spectrally be met with insertion of gain in the loop and, the latter, by
pure signals with a compact configuration of OEO, based on controlling the phase. Since the loop can support waves
optical whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators are circulating once, twice, …n-times, the oscillator is
discussed. Finally, based on the current development, future fundamentally multi-mode, with the mode spacing determined
versions of the OEO, which combine the optoelectronic feedback by the free spectral range of the cavity. By adding a filter in
loop with a Kerr comb frequency generator made with a
crystalline WGM resonator, are mentioned.
the loop with a prescribed center frequency , the output of the
oscillator can be obtained at that frequency. In this way, any
I. INTRODUCTION frequency supported by the bandwidth of the components can
be generated. The close-to-carrier phase noise of the OEO is
Spectrally pure and frequency stable microwave and mm- fundamentally determined by the Q of the optical resonator,
wave reference signals have widespread applications in while its white noise floor is determined by the shot noise of
diverse fields of science and technology ranging from the optical power on the photodetector. In practice, the noise
metrology to communications, sensing, and radar. The need is ultimately limited by the 1/f noise of the amplifier in the
for high performance sources in this spectral domain is loop, and the 1/f noise of the photodetector.
growing at an increasing rate in response to advances in
technology related to radio astronomy, mm-wave metrology, The power of the OEO architecture is in its flexibility as it
and high rate data transmission networks with associated can be configured in a variety of ways with different optical
wider bandwidth requirements. The traditional approach for and electrical components to optimize the performance. The
generating spectrally pure signals relies on multiplication of
lower frequency signals generated with high performance
quartz or surface acoustic wave (SAW) oscillators, or direct
generation using high quality factor (Q) microwave and mm-
wave resonator oscillators, but these approaches have inherent
limitations. In the case of multiplied signals, the multiplied
noise of the high performance oscillator at 20 log N, with N
the multiplication factor, limits achievable performance; in the
direct generation scheme, the high Q cavity is bulky, highly
sensitive to environmental perturbations, and for the highest
performance requires cryogenic cooling, thus limiting Figure 1 Generic configuration for Opto-Electronic Oscillator (OEO)
applications where size, weight, and power are restricted.
II. THE OPTO-ELECTRONIC OSCILLATOR (OEO) gain, the filter, the phase shifter can be placed either in the
optical segment or the electrical segment of the loop. The
A. General Scheme light source can be of any suitable type, including a laser or a
source of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE); modulation
In the last fifteen years, generation of spectrally pure of light can be achieved directly with the current of the laser,
microwave and mm-wave signals has been achieved using or with an external modulator. The signal can be generated
optical schemes. The most widespread approach is based on with phase, amplitude, or polarization modulation. The high
the opto-electronic oscillator (OEO) where high Q optical Q cavity can be a Fabry-Perot, a whispering gallery mode
cavities with extremely low loss are used with opto-electronic
optical resonator, or a long fiber delay with an equivalent Q =
feedback loops. The generic OEO consists of a light source
(usually a laser), light modulator, optical cavity, and a , where  is the oscillator frequency, and  is the delay
photodetector; the output of which is fed back to the given by nL/c, with L the length of the fiber, c the speed of
modulator to achieve a closed loop configuration (see Figure light, and n the index of refraction of the fiber. The operation

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frequency can be fixed by a fixed filter or tuned by changing filter has also been demonstrated [6]. Another approach for
the RF filter’s center frequency, or the cavity’s “optical reducing the amplitude of unwanted modes surviving the filter
length” through controlling dispersion, or the wavelength of bandwidth and appearing as “supermodes” in the phase noise
the laser. Finally, even the light source can be a laser external spectrum is to use multiple lengths of fiber as an optical filter
to the loop, or a source produced by placing gain in a second [7]. These extra loops essentially represent a finite impulse
optical loop that is coupled to the electrical loop through the response filter. Such an approach was recently somewhat
modulator, which is shared by both loops. This latter modified to achieve the overall filtering effect in optics, rather
configuration is known as the coupled opto-electronic than in combination with the electrical loop [8]. Finally, an
oscillator or COEO. OEO utilizing an atomic transition in rubidium was also
demonstrated; this oscillator was designed to also achieve high
stability of operation derived from the atom [9].
An attractive feature of the OEO architecture is that its noise
A limitation of multi-loop approach is that filtering is best
can be accurately modeled with analysis and with numerical accomplished when the two fiber lengths are different so that
simulations. In the original paper describing the OEO, a the FSR related to each length is at a proper ratio to ideally
model for the noise of the oscillator was presented [2]. This provide only a single mode coinciding in frequency in both
model has been modified by various authors to include the loops. This condition dictates that one of the fiber lengths is
effect of noise in the components such as amplifiers and shorter than the other, so the resultant Q of the combined
detectors on the overall spectral purity [4]. Noise models loops is lower than the Q of the longest length of fiber. A
based on Laplace transform formalism and Langevine modified version of multi-loop configuration to reduce or
equations have also been developed [23]. A recent paper has eliminate the unwanted noise peaks while providing the best
studied the optical noise associated with the use of the fiber in performance and lowest degradation of high Q of the long
the loop, and experimentally verified what has been fiber was assembled as a pair of coupled OEO injection locked
previously asserted regarding the influence of Rayleigh to each other [11]. This scheme was recently modified to
scattering and Brillouin effect [22]. optimize the performance by careful control of phase and
amplitude of mutually injected signals of the OEO pair [21].
Variations of the OEO architecture by several research It is desirable to reduce the unwanted supermodes by
groups around the world have been employed to generate decreasing the length of the fiber to increase the frequency of
high performance microwave and mm-wave signals. In the the modes so that they might lie outside the filter bandwidth.
fiber based OEO, the length of the fiber is related to the This, however, reduces the high Q associated with the length
Leeson frequency given by: of the fiber delay. A way around the problem is the COEO
scheme. In the COEO, the active optical loop essentially
0 functions as a Q multiplier of the oscillator. So a shorter fiber
fL 
2Q length in the COEO can produce a lower phase noise than
with the same length of fiber in the OEO, while at the same
where  is the frequency of the oscillator. A 16 km long fiber time practically eliminating the unwanted supermodes. This
was used to obtain the highest achieved spectral purity of -163 scheme also has the desirable feature of a more compact size
dBc/Hz in a 10 GHz free-running oscillator, at 7 kHz from the associated with the short length of fiber, with the added
carrier [4]. This performance was limited by the flicker noise benefit of lower sensitivity to environmental perturbations
of the photodetector the loop. One of the features of a fiber [10].
delay is that oscillations at frequencies that are multiples of With advances in technology of optical modulators and
the fundamental frequency associated with the length of fiber detectors, the operating frequency of the OEO is also on the
(the analog of longitudinal modes of a laser resonator) are also rise. Early on, operation at 39 GHz was demonstrated [12],
supported. This multi-mode oscillation, mentioned above, can but recently an OEO operating at 50 GHz has also been
be suppressed if the bandwidth of the filter in the loop is produced [13]. As the frequency of operation increases, effect
narrow enough so that only a single mode of oscillation of laser noise and dispersion on the phase noise produced by
survives in the loop. Such a narrow-band filter, however, is the oscillator must be taken into account [14].
not practical, especially when the length of the fiber is long
and the operation frequency is in the microwave and mm- B. OEO Based on WGM Resonators
wave range. For example, for a 4 km length of fiber the A new direction in OEO technology is the application of
frequency associated with these modes is about 90 kHz; a WGM resonators, both, as the filter and the high Q element.
filter with this bandwidth is hard to realize at frequencies The basic configuration is depicted in Figure 2. Because a
above a GHz. semiconductor laser can be locked to the high Q resonator, as
One approach to mitigate this problem is to utilize optical well, this scheme has the added benefit of small size and low
(instead of electronic) filters in the OEO. This scheme is operation power. These are important benefits for applications
particularly attractive since Fabry-Perot cavities and where size and power are important. There are two basic
whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical resonators can have approaches for realization of the WGM resonator-based OEO:
narrow bandwidth. A low noise OEO has been recently direct modulation of the laser current or external modulation
demonstrated with a Fabry-Perot as a filter in the optical loop using a resonator made with electro-optic material. In the
[5]. A 39 GHz OEO utilizing a WGM resonator as an optical former case, the resonator can be fabricated with crystalline

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material, such as calcium fluoride or magnesium fluoride, to combs with very high stability producing unmatched spectral
achieve extremely high Qs. purity at 1 and 10 GHz [18].
One of the shortfalls of the technique with femtosecond
combs is that they are large, requiring a pump laser, and are
generally limited to application in the laboratory environment.
They also produce signals at frequencies around 10 GHz and
lower. A recent advance in the generation of optical frequency
comb using a WGM resonator has opened the door for
generation of high spectral purity signals at virtually any
desired microwave or mm-wave (and even THz) frequency.
This is based on Kerr nonlinearity in the resonator material,
which through the process of four-wave mixing and hyper-
parametric oscillation allows excitation of many modes when
one mode of the resonator is pumped with laser light.
Moderate laser powers combined with the high Q of the
Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the OEO based on a lithium niobate resonator make this process possible [19]. Using the Kerr
modulator made with a whispering gallery mode resonator frequency comb, high spectrally pure mm-wave signals have
been produced at about 35 GHz [20]. A clear advantage of
Optical resonators with Q exceeding 1011 have been this scheme is the small size of the Kerr comb oscillator that
demonstrated with these materials [15]. The noise can support a wide variety of applications in science and
corresponding to this high Q is quite low, but the frequency of engineering [25].
the oscillator is limited to the bandwidth of the modulation
frequency of the laser, and is typically limited to x-band Advances made with the comb oscillator appear to make
frequencies. Given the growing interest in higher frequency the need for the OEO configuration less important. In fact, it
oscillators, the WGM resonator serving as a modulator can be can be shown that combining the OEO feedback loop with the
more attractive. Here, the resonator is fabricated with electro- comb will result in a regenerative architecture, similar to
optic material, such as lithium niobate or lithium tantalate, and COEO. The outcome will be higher performance, by perhaps
provided with electrodes that can be used to apply the tens of dB, beyond what is achievable with the Kerr comb
modulation voltage. The narrow resonance of the resonator oscillator. This area represents a new focus for OEO research
serves to provide low phase noise in the oscillator circuit; it in the future, and will likely provide new results within the
also leads to highly efficient modulation and thus reduction for next few years.
needed amplification. It should be mentioned that an OEO In summary, the OEO architecture for generation of
with a WGM resonator as filter and an external phase spectrally pure microwave and mm-wave signals has
modulator has also been demonstrated. advanced considerably in the past few years. New schemes
The latest advance in the technology of WGM based OEO for realization of the OEO and use of optical combs promise
is the use of a both TE and TM modes of the resonator. A to serve emerging applications to meet the ever stringent
modulator transferring photons from a single TE mode to TM performance requirement of emerging applications.
modes has been shown to perform as a true single sideband
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(SSB) modulator. The SSB modulator is fundamentally more
efficient, and thus can improve the performance of the The author wishes to express his gratitude to members of
oscillator. Furthermore, since the indices of refraction of the the Quantum Sciences and Technology Groups at JPL, and
modes respond differently to a forcing function, such as those at OEwaves who have made important and extensive
temperature change or an applied voltage, the modulation contributions to the development and advancement of the
frequency can be tuned. This approach has been recently OEO technology. In particular, I wish to thank Jerry Byrd,
implemented, and a tunable oscillator with a WGM resonator Danny Eliyahu, Shuhua Huang, Vladimir Ilchenko, Wei
was demonstrated [16]. Liang, Andrey Matsko, Enrico Rubiola, Anatoliy Savchenkov,
David Seidel, Meirong Tu, Steve Yao, and Nan Yu for their
An different approach for generation of microwave and contributions, and for enriching my understanding and
mm-wave signals takes advantage of the fact that a frequency knowledge in this field.
comb generated with a femtosecond mode locked laser is
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