Distortion Comparison of Single-Sideband Coherent Analog Optical Links Employing X-Cut and Z-Cut Mach–Zehnder Modulators

Author

Zhu, Guanghao ; Bortnik, Bart ; Liu, Wei ; Fetterman, Harold R. ; Forber, Richard ; Wang, Wen C.

Author_Institution

Electr. Eng. Dept., Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA

Volume

20

Issue

18

fYear

2008

Firstpage

1548

Lastpage

1550

Abstract

A single-sideband coherent analog optical link is implemented using a null-biased Mach-Zehnder (MZ) intensity modulator followed by a narrowband optical bandpass filter. The fidelity performance of such a link is compared between cases with X-cut and Z-cut MZ LiNbO₃ modulators. It is shown that for the case of Z-cut modulators, the converted radio-frequency output contains higher nonlinear distortions. Under the same operating condition, the spurious-free dynamic range of an X-cut link outperforms that of a Z-cut link by 2.6 dB.

Keywords

band-pass filters; electro-optical modulation; intermodulation distortion; lithium compounds; nonlinear optics; optical communication equipment; optical distortion; optical filters; optical links; LiNbO₃; LiNbO₃ modulator; X-cut Mach-Zehnder modulator; Z-cut Mach-Zehnder modulator; coherent analog optical links; electrooptic modulation; fidelity performance; intensity modulator; intermodulation distortion; narrowband optical bandpass filter; nonlinear distortion; single-sideband optical links; suppressed carrier; Band pass filters; Intensity modulation; Narrowband; Nonlinear distortion; Nonlinear optics; Optical distortion; Optical fiber communication; Optical filters; Optical modulation; Radio frequency; Coherent optical link; electrooptic modulation; intermodulation distortion; suppressed carrier;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2008.927911

Filename

4603058