Efficient RF Frequency Down-Conversion Using Coupled Quantum-Well Optical Phase Modulator

Author

Wang, Renyuan ; Bhardwaj, Ashish ; Li, Yifei

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, Dartmouth, MA, USA

Volume

23

Issue

10

fYear

2011

fDate

5/15/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

645

Lastpage

647

Abstract

Frequency down-conversion is important to radar front-end. In this work, we achieve efficient RF frequency down-conversion using a coupled quantum-well optical phase modulator fabricated on an indium phosphide material platform. When used in conjunction with an optical phase-locked loop-based linear phase demodulator, a 1-mm-long device exhibits a down-conversion loss of ~2.6 dB and a spurious-free dynamic range of ~125 dB·Hz^2/3 in the photodetector shot-noise limit. Furthermore, the phase modulator has a very low optical propagation loss (<;0.2 dB/mm). This allows for a longer modulator device capable of achieving even higher performance.

Keywords

indium compounds; light propagation; optical frequency conversion; optical modulation; optical phase locked loops; photodetectors; quantum wells; InP; RF frequency down-conversion; coupled quantum-well; indium phosphide; linear phase demodulator; optical phase modulator; optical phase-locked loop; optical propagation loss; photodetector shot-noise limit; radar front-end; Optical device fabrication; Optical distortion; Optical losses; Optical mixing; Optical modulation; Phase modulation; Optical phase-locked loop; quadratic optical phase modulator;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2011.2121898

Filename

5722022