Influence of Mach-Zehnder modulator bias point on development of microwave signal generation in microwave photonic ring generator

Abstract

The paper reports experimental results on development of a broadband microwave dynamical chaos in a microwave photonic generator. An influence of a bias point of Mach-Zehnder modulator on scenario of dynamical chaos development is investigated in details. It is shown that increase of a ring gain coefficient leads to changing of generation regimes. A rich set of the generation regimes is observed for the first time. It includes the continuous wave, rectangular periodic pulses, period doubled pulses, period doubled chaotic pulses, chaotic pulses, “weak” chaos, chaos, broadband chaos, and noise. The threshold values of a ring gain coefficient corresponding to changing of the generation regimes are determined. A shifting of the bias point to the maximum of transmission characteristics leads to a consistent disappearance of the regimes.