Abstract
A photonic approach for the generation of an amplitude- and phase-modulated microwave
signal with tunable frequency and modulation bit-rate is proposed and demonstrated. Two coherent
optical wavelengths are generated based on external modulation by biasing a Mach-Zehnder modulator
(MZM) at the minimum transmission point to generate ±1-order optical sidebands while suppressing the
optical carrier. The two sidebands are sent to a circulator and are then spectrally separated by a
fiber Bragg grating notch filter. With one sideband being amplitude-modulated at another MZM and the
other being phase-modulated at a phase modulator, a frequency-tunable amplitude- and phase-modulated
microwave signal is generated by beating the two sidebands at a photodetector. The proposed
technique is investigated theoretically and experimentally. As a result, a 20-GHz
amplitude-modulated, 20-GHz phase-modulated, and 25-GHz amplitude- and phase-modulated microwave
signals with tunable modulation bit-rate are experimentally generated.
© 2012 Chinese Optics Letters
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