Ultra-stable microwave signals are essential for a variety of high-precision applications, including time and frequency metrology, large-scale photon science facilities, global navigation satellite systems, and quantum computing. Traditional electronic oscillators face inherent limitations in phase noise performance and long-term stability. This dissertation explores the photonic approaches to generate ultra-stable microwave signals leveraging mode-locked lasers and pure optical reference modules to achieve unprecedented frequency stability and phase noise performance.This dissertation provides a comprehensive study of photonic timing instrumentation and microwave synthesis, detailing key components, measurement techniques, and system-level innovations. It then presents the design and experimental implementation of a certain specific photonic microwave oscillator architecture named PRESTO, which incorporates a fiber delay line for self-referencing and stabilization. A feedback control system is introduced to suppress phase noise and improve frequency stability. Experimental validation of PRESTO demonstrates a significant reduction in the phase noise of the output microwave signal, achieving integrated timing jitter of less than 30 fs down to 1 Hz. The findings of this research demonstrate that PRESTO is a promising solution for next-generation photonic microwave oscillators, offering superior stability and spectral purity. The first lab prototype exhibits an outstanding phase noise performance comparable to other state-of-the-art photonic microwave oscillators, including the optical frequency division methods and delay-line based oscillators with opportunities for further advancements in this field.
Erwin Cano Vargas (Wed,) studied this question.