Abstract
Recently, optical phase modulation has been widely used in microwave
photonics (MWP) systems, such as radio over fiber systems, photonic microwave
filters, optical microwave and millimeter-wave signal generators, and optical
subcarrier frequency up-converters. An optical phase-modulated signal can
be converted to an intensity-modulated signal in a dispersive optical fiber.
Due to the intrinsic nonlinearity of optical phase modulation, for linear
applications such as microwave signal distribution and filtering, the modulation
index should be kept small to minimize the unwanted modulation nonlinearity.
However, for nonlinear applications such as microwave frequency multiplication
and subcarrier frequency upconversion, the modulation index should be large
to maximize the frequency multiplication and upconversion efficiency. In this
paper, for the first time to our knowledge, we develop a thorough theoretical
framework for the characterization of phase-modulation-based MWP systems,
in which the phase modulation to intensity modulation conversion is realized
using a dispersive fiber. Analytical models for the distributions of single-tone
and two-tone microwave signals and for microwave frequency multiplication
and subcarrier frequency upconversion are developed, which are verified by
numerical simulations. The analytical models for single-tone and two-tone
transmissions are further confirmed by experiments. The developed analytical
models provide an accurate mathematical tool in designing phase-modulation-based
MWP systems.
© 2009 IEEE
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