Microwave Photonic Phase Shifter Based on an Integrated Dual-polarization Dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder Modulator without Optical Filter

ABSTRACT

A frequency-doubled microwave photonic phase shifter (MPPS) without optical filter is proposed. The MPPS is based on an integrated dual-polarization dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DP-DPMZM) and a polarization modulator (PolM). The DP-DPMZM with a 90° polarization rotator in one arm is used to generate an optical carrier suppressed double sideband (OCS-DSB) signal with orthogonal polarization, and the PolM with two modes opposite phase modulation is used to introduce the optical phase shift between the two orthogonally polarized tones. Simulations show that the MPPS can realize a continuously tunable phase shift of 360° with only one DC bias voltage, and is not sensitive to the optical carrier wavelength and microwave signal frequency since no optical filter is used.     

A Photonic mm-Wave Frequency Sextupler Using an Integrated Mach–Zehnder Modulator with Three Arms

Abstract

A novel photonic mm-wave frequency sextupling scheme based on an integrated Mach–Zehnder modulator with three arms is proposed in this article. Without any optical filter, a high-quality frequency sextupling mm-wave signal can be generated. Compared with mm-wave generation schemes based on traditional two-arm Mach–Zehnder modulators, the proposed scheme does not need DC bias and a complex electrical bias control circuit. Some non-ideal factors are taken into consideration to verify its performance, which proves that a slight deviation of the ideal values does not cause great degradation of the performance of the mm-wave generation scheme.     

Tunable and reconfigurable microwave photonic filter based on cascaded modulation for multi-taps generation

In this paper, a theoretical analysis and experiment to obtain the tunable and reconfigurable microwave photonic filter is proposed. The sidebands generated by cascaded modulation serve as the multi-taps, and then the reconfigurability and tunability can be realized by adjusting the operating condition of intensity modulators and the optical phase shifting between modulators.     

Simulation of a flat optical frequency comb using a single-drive multi-RF Mach–Zehnder modulator in a cascaded intensity modulator chain

We proposed a scheme based on two cascaded lithium niobate intensity modulators to generate an optical frequency comb with very high flatness. Single-drive multi-RF waveforms are used for driving the first intensity modulator, and 9 lines within 1 dB power variation can be obtained. When cascading with another intensity modulator, by specially adjusting the DC bias and the drive amplitudes of the RF signals of the two intensity modulators, 27 or 45 comb lines with a spectral power variation about 1 dB are obtained. The scheme is relatively simple and adjustable, and the frequency interval of the OFC varies with microwave frequency applied on modulators.     

Microwave photonic filter with negative coefficients based on counter-phase modulation using a single electro-optic phase modulator

A simple photonic approach is proposed for the implementation of a reconfigurable multi-tap microwave filter with negative coefficients. In this scheme, a dual-optical-input intensity modulation module which can perform counter-phase modulation is constructed using a single electro-optic phase modulator. Two inter-complementary microwave signals are experimentally obtained for verification of the function of counter-phase modulation. A reconfigurable four-tap microwave filter with two negative coefficients is implemented by experiment.     

Ultrasensitive terahertz/infrared waveguide modulators based on multilayer graphene metamaterials

This paper studies and classifies the electromagnetic regimes of multilayer graphene‐dielectric artificial metamaterials in the terahertz/infrared range. The employment of such composites for waveguide‐integrated modulators is analysed and three examples of novel tunable devices are presented. The first one is a modulator with excellent ON‐state transmission and very high modulation depth: >38 dB at 70 meV graphene's electrochemical potential (Fermi energy) change. The second one is a modulator with extreme sensitivity towards graphene's Fermi energy ‐ a minute 1 meV variation of the latter leads to >13.2 dB modulation depth. The third one is a tunable waveguide‐based passband filter. The narrow‐band cut‐off conditions around the ON‐state allow the latter to shift its central frequency by 1.25% per every meV graphene's Fermi energy change.     

Generation of long bursts of high-repetition-rate arbitrarily shaped optical pulses using time lens

A technique for the generation of long ultrahigh-speed bursts of optical pulses with arbitrary shapes is proposed. A laser pulse is temporally chirped by a time lens and then passes through a filter with a reconfigurable periodic spectral response, which produces time-delayed replicas of the chirped pulse and recombines them. As a result of the temporal interference between the replicas, the chirped pulse is broken up into short pulses with the shape determined by the chosen filter response. It is demonstrated that the filter acts on a long chirped optical pulse as a temporal modulator with a periodic modulation function. The modulation frequency and bandwidth of the modulator can be much higher than for commercially available high-frequency modulators. The additional advantage of this modulator is the arbitrary shape of the modulation function. A 2.4 ns burst of nearly flat-top pulses with a repetition rate of about 400 GHz is obtained in numerical simulations. In addition, the technique proposed can act as a pulse repetition rate multiplier and a pulse compressor. A repetition rate of 1.589 THz and an individual pulse width of 212 fs are achieved in simulations for a 9.7 ns sinusoidally phase modulated pulse burst.     

Experimental Electrically Reconfigurable Time-Domain Spectral Amplitude Encoding/Decoding in an Optical Code Division Multiple Access System

Abstract

An electrically reconfigurable time-domain spectral amplitude encoding/decoding scheme is proposed herein. The setup is based on the concept of temporally pulse shaping dual to spatial arrangements. The transmitter is based on a short pulse source and uses two conjugate dispersive fiber gratings and an electro-optic intensity modulator placed in between. Proof of concept results are shown for an optical pulse train operating at 1.25 Gbps using codes from the Hadamard family with a length of eight chips. The system is electrically reconfigurable, compatible with fiber systems, and permits scalability in the size of the codes by modifying only the modulator velocity.     

Microwave Photonic Up- and Down-Converter with Tunable Phase Shift Based on an Integrated Dual-Polarization Dual-Parallel Mach–Zehnder Modulator without Optically Filtering

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we propose and numerically simulate a microwave photonic phase-tunable frequency converter (MPPTFC) without optically filtering to realize both frequency up- and down-conversion and a full 360° phase-shift for the microwave signal based on an integrated dual-polarization dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DP-DPMZM). In the proposed scheme, both microwave RF signal and frequency-tunable local oscillator (LO) are modulated on the lightwave by single-sideband carrier suppression (SSB-CS) modulation to generate optical orthogonally polarized optical tones carrying RF signal with up- or down-converted frequency. A PolM that can support lightwave modulation with opposite modulation indices in transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes is used to introduce a phase difference between the two modes. Then the orthogonally polarized optical tones are aligned into a single polarized state by a polarizer (Pol) and detected by a photodiode (PD), a frequency-converted and phase-shifted microwave signal can be obtained. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed MPPTFC can up-/down-convert the microwave signal with a tunable frequency shift of LO frequency and realize a 360° continuously tunable phase shift via the DC bias voltage of the PolM simultaneously.     

Microwave Photonic Link with Carrier Suppression for Increased Dynamic Range

Theoretical analysis and experimental investigation of microwave photonic links with bias-shifted Mach-Zehnder modulators are presented. An optical amplifier is used to increase link gain and reduce noise figure. The combination of modulator bias shift away from quadrature and optical amplification reduces the link noise figure by more than 15 dB. For modulation frequencies from 2 to 18 GHz, the third-order limited spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR3) of these links is greater than 120 dB, normalized to a 1-Hz bandwidth. Conventional links based on Mach-Zehnder modulators are limited to SFDR3 values of approximately 110 dB, normalized to a 1-Hz bandwidth. This level of performance is achieved without electronic or optical linearization.     

Optoelectronic Oscillator Based on Polarization Modulation

Abstract

A polarization modulator together with a polarizer can implement phase modulation, intensity modulation with tunable chirp, and frequency-doubling intensity modulation. If an optical filter is incorporated, frequency-quadrupling and frequency-sextupling intensity modulations and a microwave photonic phase shifter can also be realized. By using a polarization modulator to replace the intensity modulator in an optoelectronic oscillator, various new features are enabled. In this article, an analytical model for the polarization modulator-based systems is established. The recent development in employing polarization modulators for constructing optoelectronic oscillators is discussed. The emerging applications enabled by the polarization modulator-based optoelectronic oscillators and the possible future development are also discussed.     

LiNbO3马赫曾德尔调制器任意偏置工作点锁定技术的研究

在传统LiNbO3马赫曾德尔调制器偏置控制理论的基础上,提出了一种基于快速傅里叶变换(FFT)算法和低频小信号扰动的谐波响应反馈控制方法,实现了一种与调制器输入光功率及插入损耗无关、任意工作点可偏置并锁定的精密光电控制系统。利用比例积分微分（PID）控制方法,实现了任意工作点偏移小于0.5°的控制精度,实验结果亦证明该控制系统能够实现强度调制器任意工作点的偏置及锁定。这些结果对于将LiNbO3强度调制器稳定在最佳工作点并实现高速长距光纤通信系统是很有帮助的。     

二维光栅光调制器阵列的光学分析与实验

基于标量衍射理论分析了二维光栅光调制器的衍射特性,提出了投影系统的光学处理方法,利用Matlab软件进行了仿真分析.分析结果表明,二维光栅光调制器的衍射光强分布是单个像素衍射光强的干涉叠加,其分布趋势与单个光调制器的衍射光强分布类似;通过反傅里叶变换可将各个调制器的衍射光重新分开而成像.如果用±1级衍射光的成像,相位为2kπ的调制器在投影面得到一个明亮的像,而相位为(2k-1)π的调制器在投影像面上得到一个黑暗的像.通过一个基于静态微光电系统光栅光调制器的投影光学系统得到了一幅明暗调制的像,证明了光栅光调制器用于投影显示的可行性.     

Analysis of polarization-independent tunable optical comb filter by cascading MZI and phase modulating Sagnac loop

A novel scheme of tunable optical comb filter constructed by cascading a polarization-swapping MZI and a phase modulating Sagnac loop is proposed. The key features of this comb filter design are its polarization-independence and high speed in wavelength tuning. The wavelength tunability can be readily achieved by incorporating an electro-optic phase modulator into the Sagnac loop. In addition, the filter can be made amplitude adjustable as well. The filter will be desirable for multi-wavelength fiber lasers, multi-channel optical signal processing and optical WDM systems.     

Demonstration of a bandwidth-tunable optical passband filter with tunable attenuation

A bandwidth-tunable optical passband filter with tunable attenuation is proposed. The filter, composed of a transmission liquid crystal array and high-resolution diffraction grating, was successfully demonstrated based on the compact spatial light design. Experimental results showed that the bandwidth, wavelength, and attenuation could be tuned by controlling the voltage applied on the liquid crystal array. The insertion loss was less than 3 dB;the attenuation tuning range was from 0 to 15 dB. The bandwidth tuning range was from 50 to 5000 GHz, which covered the full C band. The filter can meet the technical requirements of colorless-directionless-contentionlessflexible reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer.     

Operation of low driving voltage cascaded modulator over non-cascaded modulator for 4 dB extinction ratio at 100 giga bit per second (Gbps)

This paper describes improved results when comparing cascaded traveling wave electro absorption modulator (TWEAM) to non-cascaded TWEAM by simulation. Large signal modeling is used for both types of modulators to achieve 4 and 10 dB extinction ratios (ERs) with flat frequency response for applications in short distance as well as long distance optical fiber communication. To obtain 4 and 10 dB ERs with 110 GHz 3 dB bandwidth, a cascaded TWEAM requires 0.4 V peak to peak (V_P-P) and 1 V_P-P input driving voltages respectively. A non-cascaded TWEAM requires about two times the input driving voltage compared to the cascaded modulator to achieve the same values of ER and 3 dB bandwidth. Both modulators have been simulated with the same bias and also use the same circuit parameters except for the total active segment lengths (1 and 0.5 mm for cascaded and non-cascaded modulator respectively) and microstrip lengths to obtain the same ERs and 3 dB bandwidths.     

A simple image-reject mixer based on two parallel phase modulators

A simple photonic microwave image-reject mixer (IRM) using two parallel phase modulators is proposed. First, a photonic microwave mixer with phase shift ability is achieved using two parallel phase modulators (PMs), an optical bandpass filter, three polarization controllers, three polarization beam splitters and two balanced photodetectors. At the output of the mixer, two frequency downconverted signals with tunable frequency difference can be obtained. By adjusting the phase difference as 90° and utilizing an electrical 90° hybrid, the useless components can be eliminated, and the image reject operation is realized. The key advantage of the proposed scheme is the usage of PM, which avoid the DC bias shifting problem and make the system simple and stable. A simulation is performed to verify the proposed scheme, a relative ??90° or 90° phase shift can be obtained between the two output ports of the photonic microwave mixer, at the output of the IRM, 60 dB image-reject ratio is obtained.     

A tunable and reconfigurable microwave photonic filter based on a Raman fiber laser

A tunable and reconfigurable microwave photonic filter is demonstrated by employing a tunable Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and a wavelength-controllable Raman fiber laser. The free-spectral-range and spectral response of the microwave photonic filter are tuned and reconfigured by controlling the optical variable delay line in one arm of the MZI and the powers of the pump LDs. Experimental results are given to show the enhanced flexibility of the present microwave photonic filter.     

The PZT optical fiber phase modulator testing with varying amplitude modulation

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Opto-VLSI-based tunable photonic RF filter

In this paper, an Opto-Very-Large-Scale-Integrated (Opto-VLSI) based tunable photonic radio frequency (RF) filter structure is proposed and numerically simulated. The structure comprises a reconfigurable Opto-VLSI processor capable of arbitrarily steering optical beams of different wavelengths, a diffraction grating for wavelength division demultiplexing, and high-dispersion fibres for true-time delaying RF-modulated wavebands. The proposed structure has the ability to generate arbitrary wavebands and weights for realizing any RF filter responses. The proof-of-concept of the tunable photonic RF signal processor is also experimentally demonstrated by tuning its free-spectral range and altering its shape factor through optical beam steering.