Dispersion-tolerant all-optical frequency upconversion technique for radio-over-fiber applications

A novel all-optical single sideband frequency upconversion technique utilizing an optical interleaver and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to overcome the dispersion-induced carrier suppression (DICS) effect is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The optical single sideband (SSB) RF signals having the RF frequency between 15 GHz and 42.5 GHz are generated by mixing an optical IF signal (1 GHz) with an optical LO signal. The all-optical single sideband frequency upconveter utilizing an optical interleaver and an SOA showed a conversion efficiency as high as 29 dB for the RF frequency range investigated.