Compensation for dispersion-induced carrier suppression effect in microwave/millimetre-wave optical links using optical phase conjugation in semiconductor optical amplifiers

Broadband compensation for the dispersion-induced carrier suppression effect in radio-over-fibre links is reported up to 40 GHz using a phase conjugator based on a semiconductor optical amplifier. The experimental results clearly show the feasibility of the optical phase conjugation technique to cancel the signal fading in a broad frequency range even in the presence of transmitter chirp. The system performance is ultimately set by the ASE noise levels introduced by the phase conjugator, which can be optimised by adjusting the pump power.