Electro-optical radiofrequency mixer based on semiconductor optical amplifier

Abstract

International audienc

Detailed Theoretical Model for Adjustable Gain-Clamped Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

“…SOAs can be used as not only optical amplifiers, but also signal processing devices such as wavelength converters [1], optical switches [2], and electro-optical mixers [3]. In terms of optical amplification, the key issue of operating SOAs is the management of the input optical signal power, which must be maintained within the linear regime of operation; otherwise the device would be driven into saturation causing unwanted intersymbol interference (ISI) or patterning.…”

Characterization of Ultra-Nonlinear SOA in a Heterodyne Detector Configuration With Remote Photonic Local Oscillator Distribution

“…These drawbacks have somehow hidden the advantages of these photonic schemes. Recently, Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOA) have also been proposed as optoelectronic mixers [7][8][9][10].…”

“…Optical mixing using SOAs is usually accomplished in alloptical [9,10] configurations, but also Electro-Optical (EO) schemes have been recently reported [7,8]. In the EO approach, which is the most interesting in terms of obtaining a photonic heterodyne mixer, one of the electrical signals involved (i.e.…”

“…The other electrical signal is directly applied to the electrical port of the SOA modulating its bias voltage. Both down-conversion [8] and up-conversion [7] have been reported. These studies [7,8] focus on the use of SOA-based EO mixing schemes for modulated RF signal distribution using Radio over Fiber (RoF) techniques.…”

Enhancing the Performance of Electro-Optical Heterodyne Receivers Using Gain Switched Photonic Local Oscillators

“…In the EO mixing, only one of the electrical signals, the local oscillator (LO) or the radio-frequency (RF), is modulated on an optical carrier. The other electrical signal modulates the SOA bias voltage [8], [10]. Both downconversion [10] and upconversion [9] have been reported, considering an electrical LO.…”