Patent ID: 8159736

Claim:
A whispering gallery mode optical resonator based photonic device, comprising: an optical resonator made of an electro-optic crystal and structured to support optical whispering gallery modes in two orthogonally polarized transverse electric (TE) modes and transverse magnetic (TM) modes circulating near a rim of the optical resonator; an evanescent optical coupler located to couple input continuous wave (CW) light at an optical carrier frequency into the optical resonator and to couple light inside the optical resonator out to produce an output beam; electrodes formed on the optical resonator to receive an RF or microwave signal to the optical resonator in an electric field polarization oriented relative to a crystal axis of the electro-optic crystal to effectuate coupling between an optical whispering gallery mode in the TE mode and another optical whispering gallery mode in the TM mode to produce an optical single sideband on light in the optical resonator at a frequency different from the optical carrier frequency; and a frequency control mechanism coupled to the optical resonator to tune a frequency spacing between the optical single sideband and the optical carrier frequency.