Photonic generation of a phase-coded microwave signal based on a single dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator

Abstract

A compact scheme for photonic generation of a phase-coded microwave signal using a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DMZM) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed scheme, the radio frequency (RF) carrier and the coding signal are sent to the two RF ports of the DMZM, respectively. By properly setting the amplitude of the coding signal and the bias voltage of the DMZM, an exact π-phase-shift phase-coded microwave signal is generated. The proposed scheme has a simple structure since only a single DMZM is required. In addition, good frequency tunability is achieved because no frequency-dependent electrical devices or wavelength-dependent optical devices are applied. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is verified by experiment. 2 or 2.5 Gb/s phase-coded 10 and 20 GHz microwave signals are successfully generated.

Generation of a frequency-quadrupled phase-coded signal using optical carrier phase shifting and balanced detection

“…In the experiment, to obtain an electrical waveform with high power after the BPD, the EDFA is set to make each PD have an average input optical power of 10 dBm. The gain of EDFA is about 40 dB, meaning that the total optical loss of the proposed scheme is about 40 dB, which is relatively high when compared with the previously proposed systems [14][15][16][17]. The large power consumption has two main origins.…”

“…However, the schemes based on the polarization modulation are usually complicated and costly due to the use of multiple modulators. A phase-coded signal can also be generated based on the optical carrier phaseshifting technique [14][15][16][17]. In this method, a modulator with two parallel branches is usually needed, such as a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) [14,15], a quadrature phase shift-keying (QPSK) modulator [16], or a dual-polarization integrated modulator [17].…”

“…A phase-coded signal can also be generated based on the optical carrier phaseshifting technique [14][15][16][17]. In this method, a modulator with two parallel branches is usually needed, such as a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) [14,15], a quadrature phase shift-keying (QPSK) modulator [16], or a dual-polarization integrated modulator [17]. In the modulator, one branch is driven by an RF signal to generate two optical sidebands with the optical carrier suppressed, while another branch is driven by a coding signal to control the phase shift of the optical carrier.…”

Photonic generation of microwave frequency shift keying signal using a single-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator

“…Recently, photonic generations of microwave signals with different modulation formats, including amplitude shift keying (ASK), phase shift keying (PSK), and high-order modulation formats, have attracted increasing attentions [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. In Ref [6,7], optical carrier suppression (OCS)-ASK signal can be used to generate microwave ASK signal.…”

“…In Ref [6,7], optical carrier suppression (OCS)-ASK signal can be used to generate microwave ASK signal. Moreover, photonic generation of phase-coded microwave signal has been proposed in optical domain, which can reduce the system complexity and increase the RF frequency of the generated signal [8][9][10][11][12][13]. High-order modulation formats, such as microwave amplitude differential phase shift keying (ADPSK), quaternary phase shift keying (QPSK), and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals, have been demonstrated by using MWP [14][15][16][17].…”