Intermodulation Distortion of a Comb-Based RF Photonic Filter Using Balanced Detection

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 27; no. 23; pp. 2477 - 2480
• Main Authors: Hyoung-Jun Kim, Weiner, Andrew M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-12-2015; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: balanced detection; Frequency comb; intermodulation distortion; Microwave filters; microwave photonics; Optical distortion; Optical fiber filters; Optical interferometry; Photonics; Radio frequency; spurious free dynamic range; tunable filters; Frequency comb; tunable filters; balanced detection; microwave photonics; spurious free dynamic range; intermodulation distortion
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2015.2470667

We investigate intermodulation distortion of a tunable radio frequency photonic filter utilizing an optical frequency comb, an interferometric configuration, and a balanced detection. When the filter passband is tuned from 2 to 7 GHz, this scheme has the third-order spurious free dynamic range of <;108.2 dB·Hz2/3. In addition, we investigate the effect of Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) configuration on second-order intermodulation. A high extinction ratio MZM results in 43-dB lower power in the second-order intermodulation tones compared with that obtained with a conventional MZM.