Filterless frequency 12-tupling optical millimeter-wave generation using two cascaded dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder...

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Optical Communications
• Millimeter-wave Technology

Background:

• Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signals are crucial for high-speed wireless communication.
• Efficient generation of high-frequency mm-wave signals with high spectral purity is challenging.
• Existing methods often require optical filters, increasing system complexity and cost.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and demonstrate a novel method for frequency 12-tupling optical mm-wave generation.
• To achieve high spectral purity without using an optical filter.
• To enable tunable mm-wave generation for various applications.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing two cascaded dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators (DP-MZMs).
• Optimizing radio frequency (RF) driving signal amplitude and phase, and DC bias points of DP-MZMs.
• Computer simulation to validate the proposed technique.

Main Results:

• Successfully generated a 120 GHz mm-wave signal from a 10 GHz RF driving signal.
• Achieved an optical sideband suppression ratio (OSSR) of 25.1 dB and RF spurious suppression ratio (RFSSR) of 19.1 dB.
• Demonstrated robustness to deviations in RF driving signal phase, voltage, and DC bias voltage.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method effectively generates high-quality optical mm-wave signals with high spectral purity.
• The system's tunability (48-216 GHz) and filterless operation offer significant advantages.
• This technique is suitable for integration into wavelength-division-multiplexing systems for high-quality optical local oscillator signals.