Highly Accurate Measurement of LN Optical Intensity Modulators by Small RF Inputs

Tsutomu NAGATSUKA  Yoshihito HIRANO  Yoji ISOTA  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E90-C   No.2   pp.474-478
Publication Date: 2007/02/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e90-c.2.474
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Evolution of Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Photonics Technology)
Category: 
Keyword: 
LN optical intensity modulators,  highly accurate measurement,  halfwave voltage,  chirp parameter,  optical spectrum analyzer,  

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Summary: 
A highly accurate measurement method of parameters of MZ-type LN optical intensity modulators is presented. In this method, a CW optical signal is input to an optical terminal and small CW RF signal is applied to an electrode of the modulator. Then sideband levels of an output optical signal at different bias points are measured by using optical spectrum analyzer. By using 1st order sideband levels which are measured at two different bias conditions, and using a compensation method to measured levels, we can obtain accurate chirp parameter even when very small power of RF signal is applied to the modulator. In this method, the chirp parameter can be obtained in good accuracy when the input RF voltage is only 3% of the halfwave voltage.