Optical Heterodyne Method for Amplitude and Phase Response Measurements for Ultrawideband Electrooptic Modulators

Author

Chtcherbakov, Anatoli A. ; Kisch, Ryan J. ; Bull, Jeffrey D. ; Jaeger, Nicolas A F

Author_Institution

Center for Opt. Commun. & Sensors, Univ. of Johannesburg

Volume

19

Issue

1

fYear

2007

Firstpage

18

Lastpage

20

Abstract

We present an optical heterodyne method for measuring amplitude and phase responses of electrooptic modulators over an ultrawide frequency range. The microwave input signal for the modulator under test (MUT) is produced by heterodyning the outputs of two lasers. The output of one of these two lasers is modulated by a subcarrier to produce dual tones separated by twice the subcarrier frequency. The output of the MUT is optically filtered to extract the components carrying the amplitude and phase information. Experimental results of measurements made up to 50GHz are presented

Keywords

electro-optical modulation; heterodyne detection; optical communication equipment; optical fibre communication; 50 GHz; amplitude response measurement; electrooptic modulators; laser output heterodyning; microwave input signal; modulator under test; optical filtering; optical heterodyne method; phase response measurement; subcarrier modulation; ultrawideband modulators; Electrooptic modulators; Frequency measurement; Lasers and electrooptics; Masers; Optical filters; Optical mixing; Optical modulation; Phase measurement; Testing; Ultra wideband technology; Electrooptic modulators; frequency response; optical communications; optical heterodyning; phase detection; phase response;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2006.888978

Filename

4032863