Narrow-linewidth photonic microwave generation based on an optically injected 1550 nm VCSEL subject to optoelectronic feedback

High-quality photonic microwave generation is experimentally demonstrated based on the period-one (P1) dynamical state output from an optically injected 1550 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (1550 nm-VCSEL) subject to optoelectronic negative feedback. The experimental results show that, under suitable injection condition, the 1550 nm-VCSEL can generate a photonic microwave signal with single sideband optical spectrum structure, but the linewidth of the microwave signal is relatively wide (on the order of MHz). After further introducing optoelectronic negative feedback, the linewidth of the microwave signal can be narrowed two orders of magnitude to 105.7 kHz. Furthermore, for the case that the feedback strength is set at an optimized value, the frequency of the microwave signal can be tuned continuously within a certain range through simply adjusting the injection strength.