Comparison of performance for third order immune photonic transmission link incorporating phase shifters and biased optimized dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator

Abstract This paper presents a comprehension on the linearization arrangements achieved through dual drive dual parallel Mach–Zehnder (DD-DPMZM) by changing bias voltages of sub-modulators and adjusting phases of RF signals. These arrangements comprise of a DD-DPMZM and electric phase shifters. For single sideband (SSB) modulation in sub-modulators of DD-DPMZM, power at intermodulation is found to be 43 dB and 61 dB for the linearized and convention single modulator link respectively. Thus, 28 dB of improvement in suppression of third order intermodulation distortion is reported for the first arrangement of linearization. For quadrature modulation in upper MZM and optical carrier suppression (OCS) modulation in lower modulator, almost complete suppression of IMD3 terms are demonstrated and found to be better performance arrangement for bias optimized dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator based linearization link.