Zeptosecond-level timing-noise floor in optical-to-terahertz photomixing

Abstract

Optical generation of terahertz (0.1 to 10\,THz) carriers can, in principle, preserve the spectral purity of an optical reference without the noise penalty associated with electronic frequency multiplication. Here, we identify and suppress the dominant excess-noise mechanisms that limit this conversion in high-power uni-travelling-carrier photodiodes. We characterize amplitude-to-phase conversion as functions of photocurrent and reverse bias and identify operating parameters to minimize the effect. We quantify the white phase noise introduced by optical amplification and show that this contribution can be eliminated by directly driving the photodiode with a high-power optical source. With the excess noise mitigated, we use cross-correlation phase-noise measurements to observe a white phase-noise floor of $-161.0$~dBc/Hz at 263.2~GHz, corresponding to a timing-noise floor of 7.6~zs/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$. The remaining floor follows the photocurrent dependence expected from shot noise. Extending the measurement across the full WR-3.4 band, from 220 to 330~GHz, yields timing-noise floors below 10~zs/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ throughout, with a minimum of 6.0~zs/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$. These results establish direct photomixing as a route to sub-10-zs/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ white timing-noise floors for continuous-wave sources at terahertz frequencies and identify the noise processes that must be controlled to reach this regime.