Photonic switching of RF signals based on optical single sideband wavelength conversion in a semiconductor optical amplifier

Abstract

Photonic switching of RF signals based on optical single sideband (OSSB) wavelength conversion using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) for radio-over-fiber applications is proposed and demonstrated. The scheme realizes OSSB signal generation simultaneously with the photonic microwave switching based on self-phase modulation (SPM), cross-gain modulation (XGM) and four-wave mixing (FWM) effects in the SOA. Photonic switching of a 50-Mbaud 16 QAM signal centered at 20 GHz is experimentally realized, and an OSSB modulated signal with a sideband suppression ratio of 22.47 dB is generated.