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Impact of Mach-Zehnder Modulator Chirp on Radio over Fiber Links

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Abstract

The impact of Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) chirp on single sideband (SSB) and carrier suppressed double sideband (CS-DSB) modulation radio over fiber (RoF) links are investigated and simulated. Finite extinction ratio and drive signal unbalanced ratio of non-ideal MZM are considered, power variation of target microwave signal and harmonic suppression are calculated and evaluated. Our results suggest that unbalanced ratio could be optimized to minimized the power variation owing to the finite extinction ratio and improve the harmonic suppress ratio in the two kinds of RoF links. However, harmonic suppression ratio declined rapidly with the decrease of extinction ratio in the CS-DSB RoF link. For a non-ideal modulator with low extinction ratio, high quality microwave signal could be obtained in the SSB RoF link while an additional filter is required to suppress the unwanted harmonic components in the CS-DSB RoF link.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Science, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei, 443002, China

    Xiaogang Chen & Shengqin Feng

  2. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO), Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, China

    Dexiu Huang

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  1. Xiaogang Chen
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  2. Shengqin Feng
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  3. Dexiu Huang
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Correspondence to Xiaogang Chen.

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Chen, X., Feng, S. & Huang, D. Impact of Mach-Zehnder Modulator Chirp on Radio over Fiber Links. J Infrared Milli Terahz Waves 30, 770–779 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10762-009-9500-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10762-009-9500-z

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