A versatile photonic waveform generation scheme by using a dual-drive Mach Zehnder modulator

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel scheme using a single dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator to generate versatile waveforms from a continuous light with a sinusoidal RF signal. A comprehensive mathematic model is derived and the algorithm to decide the variables for generating various waveforms is developed. The theoretical predictions agree with our experimental results. This reveals a new mechanism for arbitrary waveform generation, which has many applications in different fields.