A photonic approach for microwave/millimeter-wave frequency measurement using stimulated brillouin scattering in single mode fiber

A photonic approach for microwave/millimeter-wave (MMW) frequency measurement is proposed and demonstrated based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) of a 20-km standard single mode fiber (SSMF). After the MMW signal is modulated to a laser source with two sidebands using optical carrier suppression (OCS) modulation, its frequency can be easily measured by monitoring the SBS-induced amplification with a power meter. Due to the 1-pm resolution of a tunable pump laser source, a frequency measurement range of 1–40 GHz is demonstrated in our experiment with a frequency resolution of 125 MHz. We believe the frequency measurement range can be further extended to satisfy photonic radar front-end processing application.