Photonic millimeter-wave frequency multiplication based on cascaded four-wave mixing and polarization pulling

A technique for the frequency multiplication of microwave signals based on the combination of two optical nonlinear phenomena in a single nonlinear fiber is investigated. Multiple four-wave mixing is used to generate harmonics on an externally modulated optical carrier while polarization pulling through stimulated Brillouin scattering is used to filter the desired harmonics. Microwave signals in the 60 GHz region are generated showing harmonic frequency multiplication factors of up to 25 with a suppression of undesired harmonics better than 20 dB.