Patent ID: 8331008
Filing Date: 2012-12-11
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
1. A whispering gallery mode resonator based device, comprising: an optical resonator made of an electro-optic material exhibiting an electro-optic effect and shaped to support one or more optical whispering gallery modes; electrodes formed on the optical resonator to receive an RF or microwave signal and to apply the received RF or microwave signal to the optical resonator; a laser that produces a continuous wave laser beam at an optical carrier frequency; an evanescent optical coupler located to couple the laser beam from the laser into the optical resonator and to couple light inside the optical resonator out to produce an output beam, where light inside the optical resonator is modulated via the electro-optic effect in response to the received RF or microwave signal to produce one or more modulation sidebands at frequencies different from the optical carrier frequency; a photodetector located to receive the output beam from the optical resonator to detect a baseband signal in the received RF or microwave signal; and an optical element located in an optical path between the evanescent optical coupler and the photodetector to transmit light to the photodetector while blocking light at the optical carrier frequency to prevent light at the optical carrier frequency from reaching the photodetector.