Continuously tunable, phase-locked, continuous-wave terahertz generator based on photomixing of two continuous-wave lasers locked to two independent optical combs

• Published in: Journal of applied physics 2010-02, Vol.107 (3), p.033111-033111-7
• Main Authors: Yasui, Takeshi, Takahashi, Hisanari, Iwamoto, Yutaka, Inaba, Hajime, Minoshima, Kaoru
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-8979; 1089-7550
• DOI: 10.1063/1.3305324

A continuously tunable, phase-locked, single-frequency, continuous-wave (cw) terahertz generator has been demonstrated around 120 GHz, corresponding to the spectral bandwidth of the F-band unitraveling-carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) used as a photomixer in this study. This cw-terahertz generator is based on photomixing of an accurately tunable cw laser and a tightly fixed cw laser in the optical frequency region, phase locked to two independent optical combs. The continuous tuning range of the presented method was three orders of magnitude around 0.1 THz and two orders around 1 THz broader than that of a previous photomixing method in which two cw lasers are phase locked to a single optical comb, and fully covered the available spectral bandwidth of the F-band UTC-PD. The spectral behavior of the tight locking and continuous tuning of 120 GHz cw-terahertz radiation was confirmed in real time by use of a terahertz-comb-referenced spectrum analyzer. This cw-terahertz generator shows promise as a terahertz clock and synthesizer for terahertz frequency metrology.