We propose a simple, full-range carrier frequency offset (CFO) algorithm for coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CO-OFDM) systems. By applying the Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) to training symbol of single frequency, the proposed CFO algorithm has wide range with shorter training symbol. We numerically and experimentally demonstrate the performance of CRT-based algorithms in a 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) CO-OFDM system. The results show that the estimation range of the CRT-based algorithm is full-range corresponding to the sampling frequency. Also, the bit error ratio (BER) degradation of the proposed algorithm with one training symbol is negligible. These results indicate that the proposed algorithm can be used as a wide range CFO estimator with an increased data rate in high speed CO-OFDM systems. (C)2013 Optical Society of America