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Cancellation of photodiode-induced second harmonic distortion using single side band modulation from a dual parallel
Preetpaul S Devgan1, Alexander S Hastings, Vincent J Urick
1U S Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA. pdevgan@ccs.nrl.navy.mil
Abstract:
We have theoretically and experimentally investigated using a dual parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DP-MZM) in an RF photonic link to cancel the second harmonic distortion due to the photodiode. Biasing the DP-MZM for single sideband modulation, the second harmonic generated by the DP-MZM can be set out of phase with the second harmonic generated at the photodiode. We measure the output intercept point of the second harmonic distortion of the link to be 55.3 dBm, which is an improvement of over 32 dB as compared to only the photodiode.
