Dispersion-Tolerant Millimeter-Wave Photonic Link Using Polarization-Dependent Modulation

Journal article, 2007

A novel technique to modulate one carrier in a dual– carrier millimeter-wave (mm-wave) photonic system is presented and experimentally evaluated. The technique utilizes the polarization dependence of an optical phase modulator and the properties of optical heterodyning and is demonstrated for both amplitudeand phase-modulated mm-wave signal outputs. Experimental verification of the technique is presented with transmission of up to 2.5-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero data, multilevel quadratic-amplitude modulation, and IEEE 802.11a WLAN data signals on a 40-GHz carrier over optical fiber and wireless transmission. The tolerance for fiber dispersion is investigated, and penalty-free transmission over 44 km is verified. The linearity of the system is evaluated by measuring the spurious-free dynamic range.