Optical frequency multiplication technique using cascaded modulator to achieve RF power advantage

Abstract

An optical millimeter-wave generation scheme consisting of four Mach-Zehnder modulator in series, each biased at its maximum transmission point is analysed by an optical path tracing method. Simulation using Virtual Photonic Inc. software package is presented as a proof of concept. The simulation results show that the proposed architecture can perform frequency octupling function with a significant RF advantage. The suppression of carrier and other unwanted harmonics by design, lower RF input power, wide operating range in terms of modulation index with satisfactory performance, and a simple filterless architecture make this circuit an attractive choice to be integrated in any material platform that offers electro-optic modulators.