Optical heterodyne detection of millimeter-wave-band radio-on-fiber signals with a remote dual-mode local light source

A novel technique for optical heterodyne detection of a millimeter-wave rad io-on-fiber signal using a remote dual-mode local light is proposed. Althou gh a free-running dual-mode local light is used, the proposed technique is in principle free from laser phase noise. Since only two components of the optical signal are selected by the local light to demodulate themselves, th is technique is also theoretically immune from the fiber-dispersion effect, even if the transmitted optical signal is in the double-sideband format. W e derive the theoretical limit of the system performance and then experimen tally demonstrate a 25-km-long fiber-optic transmission and the optical het erodyne detection of a 59.6-GHz radio-on-fiber signal with 155.52-Mb/s diff erential-phase-shift-keying formatted data.