Injection locking and injection pulling refer to the frequency effects that can occur when a harmonic oscillator is disturbed by a second oscillator operating at a nearby frequency. When the coupling is strong enough and the frequencies near enough, the second oscillator can capture the first oscillator, causing it to have essentially identical frequency as the second. This is injection locking. When the second oscillator merely disturbs the first but does not capture it, the effect is called injection pulling. Injection locking and pulling effects are observed in numerous types of physical systems, however the terms are most often associated with electronic oscillators or laser resonators.
Injection locking has been used in beneficial and clever ways in the design of early television sets and oscilloscopes, allowing the equipment to be synchronized to external signals at a relatively low cost. Injection locking has also been used in high performance frequency doubling circuits. However, injection locking and pulling, when unintended, can degrade the performance of phase locked loops and RF integrated circuits.
Read more about Injection Locking: Injection From Grandfather Clocks To Lasers, Injection-locked Oscillator, Unwanted Injection Locking, Gain By Injection Locking, Injection Pulling