Terahertz wireless communication in a 560-GHz band using a Kerr micro-resonator soliton comb

Terahertz (THz) waves have attracted attention as carrier waves for next-generation wireless communications (6 G). Electronic THz emitters are widely used in current mobile communications; however, they may face technical limitations in 6 G with upper-frequency limits. We demonstrate wireless communication in a 560-GHz band by using a photonic THz emitter based on photomixing of a 560-GHz-spacing soliton microcomb in a uni-travelling carrier photodiode together with a THz receiver of Schottky barrier diode. The on-off keying data transfer with 2-Gbit/s achieves a Q-factor of 3.4, thus, satisfying the limit of forward error correction. (c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement