On the stability & phase locking to a system reference of an optoelectronic oscillator with large delay

Delay line oscillators based on photonic components, offer the potential for realization of phase noise levels up to 3 orders of magnitude lower than achievable by conventional microwave sources. Fibreoptic-based delay lines can realize the large delay required for low phase noise systems whilst simultaneously achieving insertion loss levels that can be compensated with available microwave and photonic amplification technologies. Multimode operation is an artefact of the delay line oscillator and introduces modulational instability into phase-locked control loops. An optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with large delay under proportional integral control by a phase-locked loop (PLL) is modelled, providing the first report of the location of all the infinity of poles of the PLL-OEO system function. The first experimental observation of giant phase modulated oscillation of a free OEO and spontaneous giant phase modulated oscillation of a PLL-OEO are also reported and explained respectively as a source and manifestation of modulational instability. Nevertheless, the analysis and experimental observations, including a prototype 10 GHz PLL-OEO phase noise spectral density achieving [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], demonstrate that stable phase lock operation and optimum phase noise performance is achievable provided full account of the multimode nature of the OEO is taken in the phase lock analysis.