Title :
Optical Radiofrequency Signal Mixing by All-Optical Sampling Based on a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Mach–Zehnder Interferometer
Author :
Rampone, Thierry ; Lagrost, Alexandra ; Sharaiha, A. ; Kabalan, A.
Author_Institution :
Ecole Nat. d´Ing. de Brest, Eur. Univ. of Brittany, Brest, France
Abstract :
Experimental performances analysis of an optical radiofrequency signal mixer based on a semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder Interferometer utilizing an all-optical sampling method is presented. An optical pulse source generating 21-ps width pulses at a repetition rate of 7.8 GHz samples an intensity-modulated optical carrier carrying an electrical subcarrier at the intermediate frequency 1 GHz. The efficiency of the all-optical radiofrequency mixer is evaluated in terms of mixing conversion gain and third-order input intercept point. The conversion gain varies from 14.4 dB to 20.3 dB according to the chosen frequency. In addition, the electrical subcarrier modulated by a Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and a 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal at a data rate of 1 MSymb/s has been frequency up-converted up to 40 GHz with an error vector magnitude of 11.68% for the QPSK modulation and 10.94% for the 16-QAM.
Keywords :
Mach-Zehnder interferometers; intensity modulation; microwave photonics; optical communication equipment; optical frequency conversion; optical information processing; optical modulation; optical pulse generation; quadrature amplitude modulation; quadrature phase shift keying; semiconductor optical amplifiers; 16-QAM signal; 16-quadrature amplitude modulation; Mach-Zehnder interferometer; QPSK modulation; all-optical radiofrequency signal mixing; all-optical sampling; data rate; electrical subcarrier; error vector magnitude; frequency 1 GHz; frequency 40 GHz; frequency 7.8 GHz; frequency up-conversion; intensity-modulated optical carrier; intermediate frequency; mixing conversion gain; optical pulse source; pulse repetition rate; quadrature phase shift keying; semiconductor optical amplifier; third-order input intercept point; time 21 ps; Frequency conversion; Frequency modulation; Nonlinear optics; Optical amplifiers; Optical attenuators; Optical interferometry; Optical pulses; All-optical radiofrequency mixer; frequency conversion; photonic mixer; semiconductor optical amplifier Mach–Zehnder Interferometer (SOA-MZI);
Journal_Title :
Lightwave Technology, Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JLT.2013.2286212
