Photonic microwave carrier recovery using period-one nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers for OFDM-RoF coherent detection

This study investigates an all-optical scheme based on period-one (P1) nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers, which regenerates the microwave carrier of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing radio-over-fiber (OFDM-RoF) signal and uses it as a microwave local oscillator for coherent detection. Through the injection locking established between the OFDM-RoF signal and the P1 dynamics, frequency synchronization with highly preserved phase quality is inherently achieved between the recovered microwave carrier and the microwave carrier of the OFDM-RoF signal. A bit-error ratio down to 1.9 × 10−⁹ is achieved accordingly using the proposed scheme for coherent detection of a 32-GHz OFDM-RoF signal carrying 4 Gb∕s 16-quadrature amplitude modulation data. No electronic microwave generators or electronic phase-locked loops are thus required. The proposed system can be operated up to at least 100 GHz and can be self-adapted to certain changes in the operating microwave frequency.