Highly Tunable, Low Jitter Optical Clock Generation

An apparatus is disclosed for the optical generation of clock signals with tunable frequency and low jitter. A laser source serves as both the carrier used to transmit the clock signal for use by other optical, electronic or hybrid circuit elements and the original modulation time base. A fraction of the original laser source undergoes one or more stages of frequency division before being recombined as a modulation signal with the remaining laser beam. Transmission of the resulting signal via single mode fiber and dividers retains the low jitter properties of the modulated signal. By starting with a clock signal of optical frequency then dividing downward in frequency, comparatively high frequency clocks may be generated, notably in the GigaHertz and TeraHertz frequency ranges.