Flexible Microwave Waveforms Synthesis Based on Wavelength Sensitive Bias Shift of a Mach–Zehnder Modulator

Abstract

A new scheme of arbitrary microwave waveform generation based on one single-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) is proposed. Due to the characteristic of the wavelength-dependent bias shift in a MZM, two light fields with different wavelength can carry two sets of modulation components and contribute the desired waveforms through both of the Fourier synthesis and time-domain synthesis. Thanks to plentiful and controllable harmonics generation, some challenging waveforms generation, such as parabolic waveform, sawtooth waveform and frequency doubling triangular waveform, can be achieved, which are verified by the theoretical analysis and experimental results. This method exhibits not only more flexible waveform generation ability, but also the advantages of simple configuration, easy operation and high efficiency of bandwidth utilization.