Frequency-Quadrupling Vector mm-Wave Signal Generation by Only One Single-Drive MZM

Abstract

We propose a novel and a simple scheme for photonic frequency-quadrupling vector millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signal generation based on only one single-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) without optical filter. According to both our theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration, when the single-drive MZM, driven by a precoded vector radio-frequency (RF) signal, operates at its maximum transmission point and has an appropriate driving voltage, its output is mainly two second-order optical subcarriers, and can be heterodyne beat in a single-ended photodiode to realize frequency-quadrupling vector mm-wave signal generation. Unbalanced or balanced phase precoding for the driving vector RF signal can offset phase quadrupling incurred by the frequency quadrupling to ensure that the generated frequency-quadrupling vector mm-wave signal displays a regular vector modulation. Based on our proposed scheme, we experimentally demonstrate the generation of 1-GBd 40-GHz quadrature-phase-shift-keying vector mm-wave signal with the bit-error ratio less than the hard-decision forward-error-correction threshold of $3.8 \times 10^{\mathrm {{-3}}}$ . To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to realize the frequency-quadrupling vector mm-wave signal generation based on only one single-drive MZM without optical filter.