Standing-wave enhanced electroabsorption modulator for 40-GHz optical pulse generation

Compact 40-GHz optical pulse generators are crucial to the implementation of practical 160-Gb/s optical time-division-multiplexing systems with 40-Gb/s electrical time-division-multiplexing tributaries. In this letter, we report on a novel standing-wave enhanced mode of the electroabsorption modulator (EAM) which can improve the performance of a single EAM for 40-GHz pulse generation. Both experimental and theoretical results indicate that the distributed effect plays an important role in the high-frequency operation of the EAM and the length of the microwave termination line must be adjusted properly to maximize the performance.