Linearized Modulator for Suboctave-Bandpass Optical Analog Links

摘要

The spurious free dynamic range of a suboctave externally modulated opticalanalog link can be improved (to >140 dB Hz4/5) with modest received optical power and little noise figure penalty by using a simple linearized modulator. Its design consists of two standard Mach Zehnder interferometric modulators in Series, and so can operate at microwave frequencies. This paper develops standardized measures of linearized modulator performance, and uses them to evaluate the modulator; link examples are also given. A simple experiment verifies the basic theoretical predictions.