DWDM optical millimeter-wave generation for radio-over-fiber using an optical phase modulator and an optical interleaver

Abstract

We have proposed and experimentally demonstrated a novel scheme to generate a dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) optical millimeter-wave source by using an optical phase modulator and an optical interleaver. The stability of the DWDM optical millimeter wave generation is largely improved because we use an optical phase modulator without a dc-bias controller and an optical interleaver is subsequently employed to suppress the optical carrier of the DWDM source, which is not as temperature sensitive as a fiber Bragg grating. Moreover, the limitation of chromatic dispersion is greatly reduced due to avoiding the generation of higher order sidebands via driving the phase modulator with optimized RF signal