Frequency Stabilization of X-Band Sources for Use in Frequency Synthesis into the Infrared

An X-band source of excellent frequency stability is needed in infrared frequency multiplication of high order. Such a source has been used in frequency multiplication by a factor of 401 using a point-contact Josephson junction as a frequency multiplier and mixer. Noise data on three X-band systems are reported. Two of these systems use klystrons as the source of X-band power; the other uses a Gunn oscillator. Each of these three systems employs both cavity and injection stabilization. Injection stabilization, using a quartz-oscillator-driven multiplier chain, provides the second-to-second and minute-to-minute stability needed for the Josephson junction experiment. To our knowledge, this is the first published noise data where cavity and injection stabilization are simultaneously employed. The quality of the best system reported here is much better-both around 1 Hz from the carrier and around 50 kHz from the carrier?than the source used to multiply by a factor of 401 to 3.8 THz.     

Advanced noise reduction techniques for ultra-low phase noise optical-to-microwave division with femtosecond fiber combs

We report what we believe to be the lowest phase noise optical-to-microwave frequency division using fiber-based femtosecond optical frequency combs: a residual phase noise of -120 dBc/Hz at 1 Hz offset from an 11.55 GHz carrier frequency. Furthermore, we report a detailed investigation into the fundamental noise sources which affect the division process itself. Two frequency combs with quasi-identical configurations are referenced to a common ultrastable cavity laser source. To identify each of the limiting effects, we implement an ultra-low noise carrier-suppression measurement system, which avoids the detection and amplification noise of more conventional techniques. This technique suppresses these unwanted sources of noise to very low levels. In the Fourier frequency range of ～200 Hz to 100 kHz, a feed-forward technique based on a voltage-controlled phase shifter delivers a further noise reduction of 10 dB. For lower Fourier frequencies, optical power stabilization is implemented to reduce the relative intensity noise which causes unwanted phase noise through power-to-phase conversion in the detector. We implement and compare two possible control schemes based on an acousto-optical modulator and comb pump current. We also present wideband measurements of the relative intensity noise of the fiber comb.     

Residual phase noise measurements of VHF, UHF, and microwavecomponents

The results of residual phase noise measurements on a number of VHF, UHF, and microwave amplifiers, both silicon (Si) bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) field effect transistor (FET) based, electronic phase shifters, frequency dividers and multipliers, etc., which are commonly used in a wide variety of frequency source and synthesizer applications are presented. The measurement technique has also been used to evaluate feedback oscillator components, such as the loop and buffer amplifiers, which can play important roles in determining an oscillator's output phase noise spectrum (often in very subtle ways). While some information has previously been published related to component residual phase noise properties, it generally focused on the flicker noise levels of the devices under test, for carrier offset frequencies less than 10 kHz. The work reported herein makes use of an extremely low noise, 500 MHz surface acoustic wave resonator oscillator (SAWRO) test source for residual phase noise measurements, both close-to-and far-from-the-carrier. Using this SAWRO-based test source at 500 MHz, we have been able to achieve a measurement system phase noise floor of -184 dBc/Hz, or better, for carrier offset frequencies greater than 10 kHz, and a system flicker phase noise floor of -150 dBc/Hz, or better, at 1 Hz carrier offset. The paper discusses the results of detailed residual phase noise measurements performed on a number of components using this overall system configuration. Several interesting observations related to the residual phase noise properties of moderate to high power RF amplifiers, i.e., amplifiers with 1 dB gain compression points in the range of +20 to +33 dBm, are highlighted     

Optical frequency standards and measurement

This paper celebrates the progress in optical frequency standards and measurement, won by the 40 years of dedicated work of world-wide teams working in frequency standards and frequency measurement. Amazingly, after this time interval, the field is now simply exploding with new measurements and major advances of convenience and precision, with the best fractional frequency stability and potential frequency accuracy now being offered by optical systems. The new "magic" technology underlying the RF/optical connection is the capability of using femtosecond (fs) laser pulses to produce optical pulses so short their Fourier spectrum covers an octave bandwidth in the visible. These "white light" pulses are repeated at stable rates (/spl sim/100 MHz to 1 GHz, set by design), leading to an optical "comb" of frequencies with excellent phase coherence and stability and containing some millions of stable coherent optical frequencies. Optical-heterodyned differences between comb lines provides a frequency-related RF or microwave output with remarkably low added phase noise, such that in an optically-based atomic clock, the phase noise of the standards-grade microwave frequency reference dominates over that of optical reference and the fs "gear-box".     

Frequency Multiplication Effects on Oscillator Instability

The effects which frequency multiplication produces on the power spectral density of an oscillator is examined as a function of the multiplication ratio and the power spectral density of the phase noise process. In addition, the power spectral density (PSD) of the multiplied-up oscillation is interconnected with the frequency standard L(f). It is explicitly demonstrated how errors are introduced when one attempts to define the rms fractional frequency deviation ?f(?)/f0 and the Allan variance ?2y(?) using the measurement of L(f). Finally, the genesis of spectral spreading of the PSD due to frequency multiplication is demonstrated in such a way that this interesting and important phenomena can be grasped by the practicing engineer.     

Operation of a Wideband Terahertz Superconducting Bolometer Responding to Quantum Cascade Laser Pulses

We make use of a niobium film to produce a micrometric vacuum-bridge superconducting bolometer responding to THz frequency. The bolometer works anywhere in the temperature range 2–7?K, which can be easily reached in helium bath cryostats or closed-cycle cryocoolers. In this work the bolometer is mounted on a pulse tube refrigerator and operated to measure the equivalent noise power (NEP) and the response to fast (μs) terahertz pulses. The NEP above 100?Hz equals that measured in a liquid helium cryostat showing that potential drawbacks related to the use of a pulse tube refrigerator (like mechanical and thermal oscillations, electromagnetic interference, noise) are irrelevant. At low frequency, instead, the pulse tube expansion-compression cycles originate lines at 1?Hz and harmonics in the noise spectrum. The bolometer was illuminated with THz single pulses coming either from a Quantum Cascade Laser operating at liquid nitrogen temperature or from a frequency-multiplied electronic oscillator. The response of the bolometer to the single pulses show that the device can track signals with a rise time as fast as about 450?ns.     

Frequency-Domain Measurement of the Frequency Stability of a Maser Oscillator

In this paper we present a direct measurement of the spectral density of both the fractional frequency fluctuations and the phase fluctuations for a rubidium (Rb) maser oscillator. A truncated polynomial is fitted to each independent set of data obtained over a Fourier frequency range between 0.1 Hz and 100 Hz. They are Sy(f) = 1.9 ×10-25f-2 + 3.4 × 10-27f2 and S? = 1.2 × 10-5f-4 + 1.9 × 10-7f0, respectively. A random walk of frequency noise is dominent for frequency below 2.8 Hz while a white phase noise is dominent for the higher frequency range. These results are used to predict time-domain measurements which are then compared to experimental values.     

Noise properties of microwave signals synthesized with femtosecond lasers

We discuss various aspects of high resolution measurements of phase fluctuations at microwave frequencies. This includes methods to achieve thermal noise limited sensitivity, along with the improved immunity to oscillator amplitude noise. A few prototype measurement systems were developed to measure phase fluctuations of microwave signals extracted from the optical pulse trains generated by femtosecond lasers. This enabled first reliable measurements of the excess phase noise associated with optical-to-microwave frequency division. The spectral density of the excess phase noise was found to be -140 dBc/Hz at 100 Hz offset from the 10 GHz carrier which was almost 40 dB better than that of a high quality microwave synthesizer.     

Comparison of phase noise simulation techniques on a BJT LC oscillator

The phase noise resulting from white and flicker noise in a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) LC oscillator is investigated. Large signal transient time domain SPICE simulations of phase noise resulting from the random-phase flicker and white noise in a 2 GHz BJT LC oscillator have been performed and demonstrated. The simulation results of this new technique are compared with Eldo RF and Spectre RF based on linear circuit concepts and experimental result reported in the literature.     

Ultrahigh Frequency Carbon Nanotube Transistor Based on a Single Nanotube

Single-walled carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNT FETs) are predicted to have intrinsic cutoff frequencies approaching the THz range. Here ldquointrinsicrdquo means that the parasitic capacitance due to fringing fields is negligible compared to the gate-source capacitance required to modulate the conductance. In practice, although there are strategies proposed to mitigate this based on parallel arrays of CNT FETs, this parasitic capacitance dominates most geometries (even aligned arrays to date). In this work we show nanotube transistor performance with maximum stable gain above 1 GHz (even including the parasitics) by combining ldquoon-chiprdquo the electrical properties of 100 CNT FETs fabricated on one long nanotube. This also solves the problem of impedance matching by boosting the on current to a large (mA) value, and at the same time allows one to extract properties of each individual CNT FET, since they are identical in electrical characteristics as they are made out of the same CNT. This strategy opens the door to applications of carbon nanotube devices in the RF and microwave frequency range, a technologically relevant portion of the spectrum for both wired and wireless electronics, that has been (until now) incompatible with nanotube device technology.     

A high capacity data centre network: simultaneous 4-PAM data at 20 Gbps and 2 GHz phase modulated RF clock signal over a single VCSEL carrier

Optical fibre communication technologies are playing important roles in data centre networks (DCNs). Techniques for increasing capacity and flexibility for the inter-rack/pod communications in data centres have drawn remarkable attention in recent years. In this work, we propose a low complexity, reliable, alternative technique for increasing DCN capacity and flexibility through multi-signal modulation onto a single mode VCSEL carrier. A 20 Gbps 4-PAM data signal is directly modulated on a single mode 10 GHz bandwidth VCSEL carrier at 1310 nm, therefore, doubling the network bit rate. Carrier spectral efficiency is further maximized by modulating its phase attribute with a 2 GHz reference frequency (RF) clock signal. We, therefore, simultaneously transmit a 20 Gbps 4-PAM data signal and a phase modulated 2 GHz RF signal using a single mode 10 GHz bandwidth VCSEL carrier. It is the first time a single mode 10 GHz bandwidth VCSEL carrier is reported to simultaneously transmit a directly modulated 4-PAM data signal and a phase modulated RF clock signal. A receiver sensitivity of ?10. 52 dBm was attained for a 20 Gbps 4-PAM VCSEL transmission. The 2 GHz phase modulated RF clock signal introduced a power budget penalty of 0.21 dB. Simultaneous distribution of both data and timing signals over shared infrastructure significantly increases the aggregated data rate at different optical network units within the DCN, without expensive optics investment. We further demonstrate on the design of a software-defined digital signal processing assisted receiver to efficiently recover the transmitted signal without employing costly receiver hardware.     

青岛近海航船相关海洋环境噪声谱级特性分析

为了了解航船以及禁渔政策对我国近海海域低频环境噪声特性的影响,文章分析了青岛近海航道区域和非航道区域的海洋环境噪声在25～500 Hz频段实测数据的1/3倍频程功率谱密度。结果表明,在30～100 Hz频段,航道附近海域海洋环境噪声谱级比非航道海域高大约5～10 dB;非禁渔期在150～400 Hz频段的海洋环境噪声谱级比禁渔期高大约4～5.5 dB。文章获取的近海低频环境噪声谱级特性,对了解和利用我国以及世界范围内近海环境噪声低频特性具有较重要借鉴意义。     

Stamp transferred suspended graphene mechanical resonators for radio frequency electrical readout

We present a simple micromanipulation technique to transfer suspended graphene flakes onto any substrate and to assemble them with small localized gates into mechanical resonators. The mechanical motion of the graphene is detected using an electrical, radio frequency (RF) reflection readout scheme where the time-varying graphene capacitor reflects a RF carrier at f = 5-6 GHz producing modulation sidebands at f ± f(m). A mechanical resonance frequency up to f(m) = 178 MHz is demonstrated. We find both hardening/softening Duffing effects on different samples and obtain a critical amplitude of ~40 pm for the onset of nonlinearity in graphene mechanical resonators. Measurements of the quality factor of the mechanical resonance as a function of dc bias voltage V(dc) indicates that dissipation due to motion-induced displacement currents in graphene electrode is important at high frequencies and large V(dc).     

Envelope signal selective emphasis in a polar radio frequency transmitter architecture

The linearity of an efficient polar transmitter architecture, with a 1 bit oversampled delta?sigma (DS) modulating the envelope signal, depends, to a high degree, on low-pass envelope filtering. This filter is compulsory to attenuate the DS quantisation noise. A high cut-off frequency results in more noise being included. In contrast, using a filter with a low cut-off frequency results in attenuation of the information content of the envelope signal. Either way, the result is unwanted spectral regrowth. By pre-emphasising the envelope signal, the filter?s attenuation of the information is mitigated. The pre-emphasis is implemented by a digital pseudo-derivative high-pass filter, with inverse magnitude characteristics of the analogue low-pass filter, within a limited interest band. Consequently, the low-pass filter can be designed with a lower cut-off frequency to attenuate more of the DS modulator noise, and the modulator can switch at lower frequencies. With this technique, the WLAN output spectrum, at the critical 30 MHz offset corner frequency, is improved by 12.5 dB, considering a second order DS sampling at 1.28 GHz. The technique was verified with an experimental setup and the behaviour agrees well with simulations.     

Precise Frequency Measurements in Submillimeter and Infrared Region

As a result of frequency stabilization of all the lasers and microwave oscillators in a new multiplication chain consisting of HCN (337 ?m), D2O (84 ?m), CO2/OsO4 (10.53 ?m), CO2 (10.18 ?m), and He-Ne/CH4 (3.39 ?m) lasers signals up to 88 THz have been synthesized with high precision. Owing to phaselocking of HCN and D2O lasers to the primary frequency standard synthesis accuracy of ~1013 up to 30 THz has been achieved for the first time. The frequency of the CO2/OsO4 laser was first measured ?OsO4 = 28 464 676 938.5 ± 1 kHz and the He-Ne/CH4 laser frequency was determined to be ?CH4 = 88 376 181 586 ± 10 kHz.     

NIM相位噪声测量系统的改造

介绍NIM(中国计量科学研究院)相位噪声测量系统的组成,讨论HPE5501B在微波信号源相位噪声测量中的应用,即将HPE5501B的测量频段由1.6GHz扩展到18GHz的方法,并给出测量系统噪声本底的计算方法及典型测量结果     

Phase noise in surface-acoustic-wave filters and resonators

Measurements of the phase noise modulation imparted on UHF carriers by surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) filters and resonators have been made using an HP 3047 spectrum analyzer. Three different types of SAW phase noise were observed. One type can be explained by temperature fluctuations. It is characterized by a spectral density of phase fluctuations which decreases as 1/f(2). The predominant noise mechanism in most SAW devices has a 1/f spectral density. The source of this noise is unknown, but it appears to be associated with both acoustic propagation and transduction. In filters fabricated on lithium niobate substrates, a third noise mechanism is evidenced. This mechanism produces nonstationary noise bursts that appear to originate in the transducer region. Experiments have been carried out on substrate materials, transducer metallizations, and over acoustic path lengths. The means by which low-frequency fluctuations are mixed to the carrier frequency have been studied.     

Terahertz pulse generation using one-dimensional photonic crystals via optical rectification effect

Generation in one-dimensional photonic crystals of a single-cycle terahertz (THz) pulse via the optical rectification effect was studied by using the Green's function method. The bandwidth and the carrier frequency of the generated THz pulse are, respectively, in the range 2–8?THz and 2–18?THz. By decreasing the duration of the input pulses these ranges can be enlarged, but pulse shape is also deformed. The results show that by setting the carrier frequency of the input pulse on the edges of the gap, the amplitude of the generated THz pulse is maximized and its bandwidth is narrowed, but for carrier frequencies located inside the gap the situation is reversed. Moreover, by adjusting the carrier frequency of the input pulse on upper gaps few-cycles THz pulses are generated.     

Photonic full-range phase shifter with simultaneous tunable frequency multiplying capability based on a DMZM

In this paper, a novel microwave photonic full-range phase shifter with simultaneous frequency-multiplying capability is proposed. The main device is a dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (DMZM) embedded in a Sagnac loop. Under the assistance of two electrical phase shifters (EPS) and a following polarizer (Pol), the optical carrier is eliminated with desired phase tunable carrier-suppressed double-sideband (CS-DSB) signal reserved. So after photoelectric conversion, the frequency-multiplied phase tunable signals are generated. The frequency multiplication factor (FMF) switching and phase tuning operation of multiplied signals can be achieved easily by adjusting the corresponding EPS. The simulation results show that the proposed structure driven by a 10?GHz RF signal can generate a frequency-doubled signal (20?GHz) or frequency-quadrupled signal (40?GHz) that features full-phase tunable range and flat power response. What is more, the proposed phase shifter has a relatively good robustness to the non-ideal factors, large frequency operation range and good frequency tunable capability.     

Secondary standard for PM and AM noise at 5, 10, and 100 MHz

A practical implementation of a portable secondary standard for phase modulation (PM) and amplitude modulation (AM) noise at 5, 10, and 100 MHz is described. The accuracy of the standard for both PM and AM noise is +0.14 dB, and the temperature coefficient is less than 0.02 dB/K. The noise floor S_φ (10 kHz) of the standard for PM noise measurements is less than -190 dBC relative to 1 rad²/Hz at 5, 10, and 100 MHz. The noise floor for AM measurements depends on the configuration. A calibrated level of PM and AM noise of approximately -130±0.2 dB relative to 1 rad² /Hz (for Fourier frequencies from approximately 1 Hz to 10% of the carrier frequency) is used to evaluate the accuracy versus Fourier frequency. Similar PM/AM noise standards are under test at 10 GHz. This new standard can also be used as an alternative to the normal method of calibrating the conversion sensitivity of the PM/AM detector for PM/AM measurements. Some types of time-domain measurement equipment can also be calibrated