All-photonic W-band terahertz receiver based on THz-to-optical carrier conversion with soliton microcomb dual carriers for high-speed OOK wireless transmission

TL;DR

This paper presents an all-photonic terahertz receiver using soliton microcomb dual carriers for high-speed wireless optical transmission, achieving error-free data transfer at 106 GHz with superior noise performance and scalability beyond 100 meters.

Contribution

The work introduces a novel dual-wavelength optical carrier scheme referenced to a soliton microcomb for terahertz reception, demonstrating improved performance over single-wavelength systems.

Findings

Error-free 106-GHz data transmission with high Q-factor and low BER.

Dual-wavelength scheme outperforms single-wavelength in noise performance.

System modeling shows potential for transmission beyond 100 meters.

Abstract

We demonstrate an all-photonic terahertz receiver for a data-modulated signal, targeting a 106-GHz, 2.97-Gb/s OOK link. The scheme employs dual-wavelength optical carriers referenced to a soliton microcomb and performs THz-to-optical carrier conversion via nonpolarimetric electro-optic downconversion using an electro-optic polymer modulator. RF spectra and eye diagrams confirmed error-free transmission with a Q-factor of 5.78 and a bit-error rate of 3.73 x 10^-9, well below the hard-decision forward-error-correction (HD-FEC) threshold (Q = 2.67, BER = 3.8 x 10^-3). Comparative measurements using a single-wavelength optical-carrier configuration clearly revealed the superior signal-to-noise performance of the dual-wavelength scheme. System-level modeling further indicated scalability of the transmission distance beyond 100 m. These results establish soliton microcomb-referenced dual carriers as a promising platform for compact, integrated receivers enabling seamless wireless-optical convergence in future 6G networks.