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Novel Birefringent Frequency Discriminator for Microwave Photonic Links

A novel photonic frequency discriminator has been developed. The discriminator utilizes a Mach Zehnder interferometer-assisted ring resonator to achieve enhanced linearity. A numerical frequency-domain two-tone test is performed to evaluate the unique design of the discriminator, particularly for suppression of the third order intermodulation distortion. The discriminator is switchable between linear-intensity and linear-field regimes by adjusting a phase delay on one arm of the Mach Zehnder interferometer. Through the simulation, the linear<intensity discriminator is shown to be advantageous.

The discriminator is an optical ring resonator-Mach Zehnder interferometer synthesized passive filter. The ring resonator is made of Arsenic trisulfide (As2S3) and the bus waveguide is a Titanium<diffused Lithium niobate (LiNbO3) waveguide. This As2S3 ring-on-Ti:LiNbO3 hybrid structure offers electro-optic tunability of the device owing to a strong electro-optic effect of the substrate material. A large optical confinement factor achieved by vertical integration of the As2S3 strip waveguide on a LiNbO3 substrate enables a low loss ring resonator. The Mach Zehnder interferometer is formed by the optical path length difference of the birefringent LiNbO3 substrate instead of a physical Y-branch structure, which makes the fabrication tolerances relaxed.

In order for this highly birefringent device to be characterized, each polarization mode must be measured separately. A novel algorithm which can measure the wavelength-swept Jones matrix including its phase response is devised. The efficacy of the algorithm is demonstrated by characterizing a ring resonator. Finally, the fabricated discriminator is fully characterized using the algorithm.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/149441
Date03 October 2013
CreatorsKim, Jae Hyun
ContributorsMadsen, Christi K, Eknoyan, Ohannes, Ji, Jim, Yeh, Alvin T
Source SetsTexas A and M University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf

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