a Schematic and cavity modes of a typical OPO. The cavity modes are discrete, and the minimum mode spacing is 2π/τ, where τ is the cavity delay. b Schematic and cavity modes of a typical OEO. The cavity modes are similar to those of an OPO since they are both delay-controlled oscillators. c Schematic and cavity modes of the proposed OEPO. ωlo is the frequency of the LO. Due to the phase jump in the parametric frequency-conversion process, the cavity modes can be continuously tuned by tuning the LO. The minimum mode spacing is π/τ. d Energy transitions in a typical OPO and in the proposed OEPO. Oscillation in the OPO is based on optical parametric amplification. The energy flows from the pump to the signal and idler through an optical nonlinear medium. There is no phase jump for the oscillating signals in the optical nonlinear medium. In the proposed OEPO, oscillation is based on electrical parametric frequency conversion. A pair of oscillations are converted into each other in the electrical nonlinear medium by the local oscillator (LO). There is a phase jump for the oscillating signals in the nonlinear medium, which leads to the unique mode properties of the proposed OEPO. PD photodetector, LNA low noise amplifier, BPF bandpass filter
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