OSCILLATOR FOR GENERATING A SIGNAL COMPRISING A TERAHERTZ-ORDER FREQUENCY USING THE BEAT OF TWO OPTICAL WAVES

摘要

The invention relates to an oscillator for generating a wave including a terahertz-order frequency from the beat of two optical waves generated by a dual-frequency optical source (10). The oscillator comprises: a modulator (12) having a non-linear transfer function for generating harmonics at a frequency lower than one terahertz for each of the optical waves generated by the dual-frequency optical source; an optical sensor (14) capable of detecting at least one harmonic for each of the optical waves generated by the dual-frequency optical source, and of converting the detected harmonics into an electric signal; a comparator (15) for comparing the electric signal to a setpoint electric signal; and control means (16) for controlling at least one member of the dual-frequency optical source from a signal obtained from the signal resulting from the comparison.