Distribution of optical-comb-based multi-frequency microwave signals over 100 km optical fiber with high phase stability

We demonstrate a long-distance multi-frequency microwave distribution system over an optical fiber link with high phase stability based on transferring an optical frequency comb (OFC). The phase fluctuation induced by the transmission link variations is detected by applying a reference OFC and is then compensated with the proposed optical voltage-controlled oscillator (OVCO) by adjusting the phase of the repetition rate of the transmitted OFC. By applying the OVCO, we perform the OFC-based multi-frequency microwave distribution over a 100 km standard single-mode fiber. The performance of the transmission system can be exhibited by evaluating the repetition rate (10.015 GHz) and second harmonic frequency (20.03 GHz) signals achieved at the remote end. The residual phase noise of the 10.015 GHz and 20.03 GHz signal is −64 dBc/Hz and −58 dBc/Hz at 1 Hz frequency offset from the carrier, respectively. The fractional frequency instability is 1.4×10⁻¹⁶ and 2.4×10⁻¹⁶ at 10000 s averaging time, respectively. And the timing jitter in the frequency range from 0.01 Hz to 1 MHz reaches 88 fs and 87 fs, respectively. Based on the phase-locked loop theory, we conduct a simulation model of the transmission system and the simulated results match well with experiments. It shows that by detecting the phase fluctuation with higher harmonic frequency signals in the simulation system, the performance of the transmission system can be further improved.