Optical transmission of narrow-band millimeter-wave signals by resonant modulation of monolithic semiconductor lasers

We demonstrate the use of monolithic semiconductor lasers as efficient narrow-band (20-300 MHz) millimeter-wave optical transmitters at a cavity round-trip resonant frequency of 45 GHz. The modulation efficiency within the passband is >10 dB above that of a conventional laser diode at frequencies below relaxation oscillation. At an input RF drive power of 10 dBm, a carrier-to-noise ratio of 90 dB (1 Hz) is achieved. We also present a system demonstration of this technique in which 50 Mb/s digital data is transmitted at a 45 GHz subcarrier over optical fiber. This is the highest subcarrier frequency transmission reported to date.>