Photonic generation of Terahertz (THz) carriers displays high potential for THz communications with a large tunable range and high modulation bandwidth. While many photonics-based THz generations have recently been demonstrated with discrete bulky components, their practical applications are significantly hindered by the large footprint and high energy consumption. Herein, we present an injection-locked heterodyne source based on generic foundry-fabricated photonic integrated circuits (PIC) attached to a uni-traveling carrier photodiode generating high-purity THz carriers. The generated THz carrier is tunable within the range of 0–1.4 THz, determined by the wavelength spacing between the two monolithically integrated distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. This scheme generates and transmits a 131 Gbits⁻¹ net rate signal over a 10.7-m distance with −24 dBm emitted power at 0.4 THz. This monolithic dual-DFB PIC-based THz generation approach is a significant step towards fully integrated, cost-effective, and energy-efficient THz transmitters.

To accommodate the demand of exponentially increased global wireless data traffic, the prospective data rates for wireless communication in the market place will soon reach 100 Gbit/s and beyond. In the lab environment, wireless transmission throughput has been elevated to the level of over 100 Gbit/s attributed to the development of photonic-assisted millimeter wave (MMW) and THz technologies. However, most of recent demonstrations with over 100 Gbit/s data rates are based on spatial or frequency division multiplexing techniques, resulting in increased system's complexity and energy consumption. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a single channel 0.4 THz photonic-wireless link achieving a net data rate of beyond 100 Gbit/s by using a single pair of THz emitter and receiver, without employing any spatial/frequency division multiplexing techniques. The high throughput up to 106 Gbit/s within a single THz channel is enabled by combining spectrally efficient modulation format, ultra-broadband THz transceiver and advanced digital signal processing (DSP) routine. Besides that, our demonstration from system-wide implementation viewpoint also features high transmission stability, and hence shows its great potential to not only decrease the system's complexity, but also meet the requirements of prospective data rates for bandwidth-hungry short-range wireless applications.

The proliferation of wireless broadband services have significantly raised the demand for high data rates. Due to the limited bandwidth of radio frequency (RF) bands that are currently in use for communication purposes, the choice of the 'Terahertz (THz) frequency region' (0.3-10 THz) is getting favored thanks to its merits of bringing together wireless and optical communications with photonics technologies. We report on an experimental demonstration of a hybrid THz photonic-wireless transmission based on a THz orthogonal polarization dual-antenna scheme. Probabilistic shaped 64-ary quadrature amplitude modulation based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (64QAM-OFDM) modulation format is used to realize high transmission rate. A potential total system throughput of 612.65 Gbit/s (around 2×300 Gbit/s line rate) with an average net spectral efficiency of 4.445 bit/s/Hz per antenna is successfully achieved.

Since about one and half centuries ago, at the dawn of modern communications, the radio and the optics have been two separate electromagnetic spectrum regions to carry data. Differentiated by their generation/detection methods and propagation properties, the two paths have evolved almost independently until today. The optical technologies dominate the long-distance and high-speed terrestrial wireline communications through fiber-optic telecom systems, whereas the radio technologies have mainly dominated the short- to medium-range wireless scenarios. Now, these two separate counterparts are both facing a sign of saturation in their respective roadmap horizons, particularly in the segment of free-space communications. The optical technologies are extending into the mid-wave and long-wave infrared (MWIR and LWIR) regimes to achieve better propagation performance through the dynamic atmospheric channels. Radio technologies strive for higher frequencies like the millimeter-wave (MMW) and sub-terahertz (sub-THz) to gain broader bandwidth. The boundary between the two is becoming blurred and intercrossed. During the past few years, we witnessed technological breakthroughs in free-space transmission supporting very high data rates, many achieved with the assistance of photonics. This paper focuses on such photonics-assisted free-space communication technologies in both the lower and upper sides of the THz gap and provides a detailed review of recent research and development activities on some of the key enabling technologies. Our recent experimental demonstrations of high-speed free-space transmissions in both frequency regions are also presented as examples to show the system requirements for device characteristics and digital signal processing (DSP) performance.

In this letter, we experimentally demonstrate terahertz (THz) photonic wireless transmission of high-speed quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK) and 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) signals in the 350-GHz band, with an effort to extend the wireless reach of ultrafast 100 Gbit/s. In the experiment, a narrowband unitraveling-carrier photodiode (UTC-PD) is used for heterodyne generation of THz communication signals, which is transparent to optical modulation formats. Experimental results show that 30 GBd/s QPSK (60 Gbit/s) and 25 GBd/s 16-QAM signals (100 Gbit/s) are successfully transmitted over a 350-GHz wireless link with an extended distance of 2 m. This enhancement is enabled by combining the techniques of employing cutting-edge narrowband UTC-PD as the photomixing THz emitter, spectrally efficient modulation format and advanced digital signal processing algorithms. The achievement makes 100 Gbit/s THz wireless communication systems promising for future smart wireless services.

Multifunctional convergence is one of the key physical features in future generation networks and Internet of things architectures. In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a unified terahertz (THz) system operating in the 300 GHz band, with a potential of simultaneously enabling high-speed communication and high-resolution ranging over a common optical infrastructure. Both THz communication and THz sensing signals are generated based on THz photonics and cutting-edge terahertz transceiver technologies. In the experiment, 16-quadrature amplitude modulation modulated THz signal is generated by photo-mixing two free running lasers for the communication, and linear frequency modulated (LFM) THz pulses are generated based on optical interferometer-based frequency-to-time mapping (FTM) for sensing. The experimental results show that up to 56 Gbit/s net rate is successfully transmitted over a 2 m free-space line-of-sight link, and the THz LFM pulses with a time-bandwidth product of up to 207 are successfully generated, which is potentially able to enable a cm-scale range resolution. We also investigate the frequency multiplexing schemes for two signals by changing the channel gap at the transmitter side. To the best of our knowledge, such a system represents the first demonstration of integrated generation system in the THz region above 300 GHz, which has great potential in prospective applications of future converged networks.