Optical millimetre-wave generation technique with high efficiency, purity and stability

A new technique is proposed and demonstrated for the optical generation of high power, high purity millimetre-wave signals, which uses optical heterodyning of two singlemode lasers to generate a beat signal in a photodiode. The lasers are in a series (master/slave) configuration, and very low phase noise is produced in the beat signal simply by subharmonic electrical injection of the slave laser.