Generation of coherent and frequency-lock multi-carriers using cascaded phase modulators and recirculating frequency shifter for Tb/s optical communication.

We investigate to generate coherent and frequency-lock optical multi-carriers by using cascaded phase modulators and recirculating frequency shifter (RFS) based on an EDFA loop. The phase and amplitude relation of RF signals on two cascaded phase modulators and the impact of EDFA gain are investigated. Experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis. The performance of 113 coherent and frequency-lock subcarriers with tone-to-noise ratio larger than 26dB and amplitude difference of 5dB obtained after a tilt filter covering totally 22.6nm shows that this scheme is a promising technique for the coming Tb/s optical communication.