Enhancing long-term frequency stability of a single-mode optoelectronic oscillator based on phase conjugation

We propose and experimentally demonstrate what we believe to be a novel single-mode optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with low frequency drift based on phase conjugation. The long-term frequency stabilization of the OEO is achieved by using photonic microwave phase-conjugate passive compensation. Besides, since there happens to be a nonlinear coupled double loop structure in the OEO, single-mode oscillation can be achieved. The experimental results show that the side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of the radio frequency (RF) signal from the OEO at 9.93 GHz is enhanced from 5 dB to 68 dB after side mode suppression, and the maximum frequency drift within 600 s reduced from 1.51 ppm to 0.04 ppm, optimized by a factor of about 40. The OEO has a simple structure, no external injection, and the phase noise is not limited by the injected signal.