Patent ID: 7362927

Claim:
A device, comprising: a laser comprising a laser resonator, an optical gain medium in the laser resonator, and a whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical resonator in the laser resonator with a resonance at a laser carrier frequency to filter laser light in the laser resonator; an optical coupler to split the laser beam out of the laser into a first laser beam and a second laser beam; an optical modulator to receive the first laser beam and an input electrical signal, the optical modulator to modulate the first laser beam in response to the input electrical signal to produce a modulated optical beam carrying optical sidebands at optical frequencies different from the laser carrier frequency; a second WGM optical resonator to receive the modulated optical beam, tunable to change in frequency in response to a resonator control signal to filter the modulated optical beam by selecting one of the optical sidebands to transmit as a filtered optical signal and rejecting other optical sidebands and the laser carrier frequency; and an optical detector to receive the filtered optical signal and the second optical beam and to produce an output signal carrying signal information in the selected optical sideband at a frequency equal to a difference between the laser carrier frequency and an optical frequency of the selected optical sideband.