Investigation of multilayer microstrip electrode for an asymmetric Mach–Zehnder modulator

In the condition of velocity matching and impedance matching, Mach–Zehnder modulator can obtain large bandwidth and low driving voltage. Based on Wheeler’s transformation of multilayer microstrip line, effective permittivity of microwave has been analyzed. Both the microwave index and characteristic impedance are affected by the thickness and the width of microstrip electrode. In order to achieve velocity matching and impedance matching simultaneously, a compensation layer is placed on the electrode. The optimal thicknesses of the electrode and the compensation layer as well as the width of electrode have been obtained. Based on single-mode condition, an asymmetric Mach–Zehnder modulator (AMZM) has been designed and simulated by effective index method and finite-difference beam propagation method (FD-BPM). The initial phase difference between the two arms of the modulator has been achieved 0.522π in the linear region. Comparing with the typical MZM, AMZM can get a larger value of f _3dB , increased by 67.32%.     

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.     

Design and modeling of microwave photonic devices

Different types of finite element methods (FEMs) for microwave and optical waveguides are reviewed and are utilized for modeling of a traveling-wave (TW) optical modulator, as one of the typical microwave photonic devices. Using the quasi-TEM and the full-wave vector FEM solvers for microwave waveguides and the scalar FEM solver for optical waveguides, the behaviour of a TW Z-cut Ti:LiNbO3 Mach–Zehnder optical modulator with a ridge structure is investigated.     

A tunable frequency-decuple optoelectronic oscillator based on frequency comb and stimulated Brillouin scattering

An optically tunable frequency-decuple optoelectronic oscillator based on optical frequency comb (OFC) and stimulated Brillouin scattering has been proposed and theoretically analyzed. In the proposed structure, the OFC is generated using a cascaded Mach–Zehnder modulator and a dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DPMZM), and multi-pump lights could be obtained instead of one pump. A quintuple Brillouin frequency shift oscillation signal generated by using Brillouin gain-loss compensation principle and carrier phase-shifted double sideband modulation is realized by using the DPMZM to double the oscillation frequency. As a consequence, a decuple frequency shift microwave signal is achieved. Profit from the wavelength-dependent nature of Brillouin frequency shift, a frequency-decuple signal at 10 \(f_{b}\) which could be tunable from 87.9750 to 94.4750 GHz by simply tuning the wavelength of the tunable laser source is obtained in theory.     

A cascaded photonic crystal fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer formed by extra electric arc discharges

In this paper, a cascaded Mach–Zehnder interferometer based on a photonic crystal fiber is reported. It is demonstrated that by applying a small dose of extra arc discharge to the photonic crystal fiber sensing part which is spliced to lead-in and lead-out single-mode fibers with core offset, the in-line Mach–Zehnder interferometer could be simply cascaded. From the analysis of Fourier transformed spatial spectra and the response tests as a sensor, it is shown that such a cascaded interferometer could effectively broaden the utilizable spectral shift range for a measured value.     

Simulation of Third-Order Intermodulation Distortion Suppression Incorporating Dual-Parallel Mach–Zehnder Modulator in a CR-SSB Modulation

A novel scheme is proposed to enlarge the spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) of microwave photonic (MWP) link by using dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator, which modifies the single sideband signal and replaces the optical carrier with an unmodulated one to remove the optical main sources of third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3). Simulation results show that the IMD3 and fifth-order intermodulation distortion can be suppressed greatly even when the modulation depth increases to a high value, and the link is limited by seventh-order intermodulation distortion and the SFDR is improved by 34.2 dB Hz in a 1-Hz bandwidth. The error vector magnitude of the MWP link with the proposed scheme is improved significantly for the transmitted 1-Gbit/s 16- quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal.     

Single-shot photonic time-intensity integration based on a time-spectrum convolution system

Real-time and single-shot ultra-fast photonic time-intensity integration of arbitrary temporal waveforms is proposed and demonstrated. The intensity-integration concept is based on a time-spectrum convolution system, where the use of a multi-wavelength laser with a flat envelope, employed as the incoherent broadband source, enables single-shot operation. The experimental implementation is based on optical intensity modulation of the multi-wavelength laser with the input waveform, followed by linear dispersion. In particular, photonic temporal intensity integration with a processing bandwidth of 36.8 GHz over an integration time window of 1.24 ns is verified by experimentally measuring the integration of an ultra-short microwave pulse and an arbitrary microwave waveform.     

Switchable down-, up- and dual-chirped microwave waveform generation with improved time-bandwidth product based on polarization modulation and phase encoding

A switchable down-, up- and dual-chirped microwave waveform generation technique with improved time-bandwidth product (TBWP) is proposed and demonstrated based on a dual-polarization dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DP-DPMZM) cascaded with a polarization modulator (PolM). By properly controlling the phase shifts of the radio frequency signals applied to the DP-DPMZM, switchable down-, up- and dual-chirped waveforms with simultaneous frequency and bandwidth doubling can be generated. To enlarge the TBWP further, splitting parabolic signal and phase-encoding splitting parabolic signal are used to drive the PolM for the enhancement of bandwidth and time duration. Numerical results demonstrate the generation of down-, up- and dual-chirped microwave waveform with TBWP of 8, 160 and 10240. The proposed method may find applications in future multifunction radar systems due to the high performance and flexibility.     

The synthesis of generalised Mach–Zehnder optical switches based on multimode interference (MMI) couplers

The space-division switching properties of a generalised Mach–Zehnder photonic switch are examined in this paper. It is shown for the first time that such an N × N switch can only produce N independent point-to-point switching states. A method that unambiguously identifies these states and thereby provides a synthesis technique for the design of these switches is presented.     

All-optical ultrafast fractional differentiator

In this work we present a technique for the implementation of an ultrafast all-optical temporal differentiator. A photonic Mach–Zehnder interferometer can provide the required spectral response for fractional differentiation within certain fractional order extent. This device shows a good accuracy calculating the fractional time derivatives of the complex field of an arbitrary input optical waveform. Analytical expressions were found relating the photonic Mach–Zehnder parameters and the required spectral characteristics of the differentiator for integer and fractional operation. The introduced concept is supported by numerical simulations.     

Reconfigurable photonic generation of microwave hybrid frequency/phase shift keying signals

A photonic approach for the generation of microwave hybrid frequency/phase shift keying (FSK/PSK) signal based on an integrated polarization division multiplexing dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (PDM-DPMZM) is proposed and demonstrated. In the scheme, the polarization modulator is employed to modulate the linearly polarized lightwave to generate an optical polarization-shift keying (PolSK) signal. Then the PolSK signal is sent to the PDM-DPMZM via a polarization controller to generate optical PSK signal. After photo-detection, a microwave hybrid FSK/PSK signal can be obtained. Simulations are conducted to verify the proposed scheme. As bit rate is set to 1 Gbit/s, a hybrid FSK/PSK signal with frequency of 10/15 GHz and phase shift of\(\pi\)is successfully demonstrated. Hybrid signals with 2-Git/s frequency shift and 1-Git/s phase shift are also implemented. The compression ratio of the generated signal is 25.5 and the main-to-sidelobe ratio is 11.2 dB. The generations of ASK, PSK and FSK signals are discussed, and the impact of the polarization extinction ratio is also analyzed.     

2-μm switchable dual-wavelength fiber laser with cascaded filter structure based on dual-channel Mach–Zehnder interferometer and spatial mode beating effect

We demonstrated a 2-μm switchable dual-wavelength fiber laser with cascaded filter structure based on dual-channel Mach–Zehnder interferometer and spatial mode beating effect. Few-mode fiber-embedded Sagnac ring configuration and a Mach–Zehnder interferometer are cascaded to form a multiwavelength filter for our previous 2-μm fiber laser. By adopting suitable fiber length and adjusting the polarization controller, we obtained a 2-μm dual-wavelength fiber laser with switchable wavelength interval. Experimental results revealed that the proposed laser shows higher quality and better stability compared with our previous work and it has potential applications in the fields of atmospheric propagation and microwave photonics.     

2D FDTD simulation of low loss small angle bend and Y branch configurations in a photonic crystal waveguide layout with a Mach–Zehnder device design configuration

A technique to produce low loss small angle bends in photonic crystal waveguides is presented. The technique consists of bridging parallel input and output waveguide segments with an inclined waveguide region of the same basic design that has a lateral dielectric shift. Results are presented for waveguides produced by enlarging the silicon gap along the central line, separating air holes in a square array photonic crystal for the TE polarization and an operating wavelength of λ_o = 1.55 μm. This low loss waveguide bending technique is applied to the design of Y branch and Mach–Zehnder photonic crystal structures. Simulation of the performance of the dielectric structures is achieved using 2-D FDTD, similar results are anticipated when applied to 3-D waveguide configurations and for other photonic crystal layouts.     

Picosecond all-optical switching using nonlinear Mach–Zehnder with silicon subwavelength grating and photonic wire arms

We investigate the picosecond switching capabilities of a planar waveguide interferometric photonic device when used for all-optical wavelength conversion of one picosecond pulses. Our device comprises a subwavelength grating waveguide arm and a photonic wire waveguide arm in a Mach–Zehnder configuration, fabricated on the silicon-on-insulator material platform. No detrimental effects of pulse broadening for transient pulses were observed.     

Vibration discrimination based upon multifractal spectrum and improved probabilistic neural network in the dual Mach–Zehnder interferometric perimeter system

Optical Review - For improving the performance of vibration discrimination in terms of dual Mach–Zehnder interferometric (DMZI) perimeter system, we proposed a novel method based upon the...     

Temporally Correlated Narrowband Biphoton Interference Based on Mach–Zehnder Interferometer

Since early 1990s, Mach–Zehnder interferometer has been used to investigate the interference of biphoton wave packets. Due to subpicosecond time coherence of biphoton generated by spontaneous parametric downconversion process, some physical processes are ignored in the interferometer, most likely the biphoton time‐domain interference. Here, the two‐photon interference phenomenon based on the Mach–Zehnder interferometer is theoretically studied, where the correlated photon pairs are produced by the four‐wave mixing in atomic system. In particular, the quantum interference effect to effectively control the coherent time of two‐photon by adjusting the input delay is used. In the damped Rabi oscillation regime, two‐photon bunching and antibunching effects are observed. In addition, in the group‐delay regime, the interference between biphoton precursor, slow‐light wave packets and also in between the precursor and the slow‐light wave packets is observed, which had never been reported before. These results may have potential applications in the fields of biphoton shaping and quantum information processing.     

A MZI-based photonic instantaneous microwave frequency measurement simplified by an optical polarizer

A novel photonic scheme of microwave signal frequency measurement with adjustable measurement range and resolution is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The proposed scheme is based on simultaneous optical phase modulation and intensity modulation with interferometric detection. A low-pass frequency response is achieved by a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) while a bandpass frequency response is produced by a polarizer placed on the back instead of in front of the MZI. The microwave frequency can be estimated by the measured amplitude comparison function (ACF) obtained from the ratio of the two frequency responses. This scheme is simple, cost-effective as it requires no extra laser sources or modulators in the basic analog modulation link. The measurement errors as shown in experimental results can be kept in 0.1 GHz over a frequency range of 0.1–8.5 GHz.     

Generation of an arbitrary chirped microwave waveform with high time-bandwidth product for increasing range resolution of RADAR by using photonic technique

An approach for photonic generation of an arbitrary chirped microwave waveform with an increased time-bandwidth product (TBWP) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed model, light from the mode locked laser is splitted into two parts by using 1 × 2 power splitter: one is sent to linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating (LCFBG) through circulator and the other is time delayed by fiber delay line. The optical pulse in upper arm is time stretched by the LCFBG. Meanwhile, the optical pulse in lower arm experiences a time delay and then stretched by the dispersive single mode fiber. Temporal interference pattern is generated with an increasing or decreasing free spectral range by combination of two time-stretched optical pulses. Finally, the temporal interference pattern which is obtained at the output of optical coupler is transformed into an arbitrary chirped microwave waveform by using a photo-detector. The main advantage of this proposed model is high TBWP in the range of 750–1000 which ultimately results in an increased range resolution of radio detection and ranging.     

A subcarrier demultiplexing scheme based on a coefficient-switchable microwave photonic filter in radio-over-fiber systems

A flexible method for subcarrier demultiplexing in radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The subcarrier demultiplexer is realized by a coefficient-switchable microwave photonic filter, which is based on biasing Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) at different transmission slopes. The 2.4 GHz and 2.7 GHz subcarrier signals both modulated with 100 Mbps on-off keying (OOK) data are transmitted and demultiplexed in the RoF system. The experimental result shows that each of the two subcarriers can be individually selected out with the other one well depressed. The proposed subcarrier demultiplexing scheme is simple, feasible, cost-effective and has good potential applications in the multiplexed RoF systems.     

Switching behaviour of nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer based on photonic crystal geometry

Nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer (NMZI) created with photonic crystal waveguides (PCW) and with Kerr-type nonlinearity has been investigated in this paper. The NMZI has been simulated using two-dimensional finite difference time domain (2D-FDTD) method. Input verses output (I /O) characteristics have been obtained for different lengths of the nonlinear arm, nonlinear coefficients of the nonlinear arm, wavelengths of the input beam, sizes of defect rods and NMZI offset. The results obtained are compared with earlier published results of NMZI created with conventional step index waveguides (SIW). It is shown that all useful features of light switching offered by SIW-based NMZIs are also possible with PCW-based NMZIs of extremely small dimensions. Moreover, PCW-based NMZIs offer additional useful feature not available with SIW-based NMZIs.