RF Photonics: An Optical Microcombs’ Perspective

TLDR

Optical microcombs generated by high‑Q microresonators offer compact, low‑power, high‑repetition‑rate broadband sources that have transformed metrology, telecommunications, spectroscopy, sensing, quantum optics, and especially RF photonics. This review surveys recent advances in optical microcomb‑based RF photonics. The authors summarize key achievements, emphasize the strong potential of microcombs for RF photonics, and outline open challenges and limitations for practical deployment.

Abstract

Over the past decade, optical frequency combs generated by high-Q microresonators, or optical microcombs, which feature compact device footprints, low power consumption, and high repetition rates in broad optical bandwidths, have led to a revolution in a wide range of fields including metrology, telecommunications, radio frequency (RF) photonics, spectroscopy, sensing, and quantum optics. Among these, an application that has attracted great interest is the use of optical microcombs for RF photonics, where they offer enhanced functionalities as well as reduced size and power consumption over other approaches. This paper reviews the recent advances in this emerging field. We provide an overview of the main achievements that have been obtained to date, and highlight the strong potential of optical microcombs for RF photonics applications. We also discuss some of the open challenges and limitations that need to be addressed for practical applications.