Photonic Sensors, Volume. 13, Issue 2, 230203(2023)

Bias-Independent Inter-Modulation Method for Simultaneously Measuring Low-Frequency Modulation and Bias Half-Wave Voltages of Mach-Zehnder Modulators

Junfeng ZHU, Xinhai ZOU, Ying XU, Yutong HE, Yali ZHANG, Zhiyao ZHANG, Shangjian ZHANG*, and Yong LIU
Author Affiliations
  • Advanced Research Center for Microwave Photonics (ARC-MWP), State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
  • show less

    A bias-independent inter-modulation method is proposed and demonstrated for measuring low-frequency modulation and bias half-wave voltages of Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs). The method consists of simultaneous sinusoidal modulation on the modulation and bias ports of the MZM under test. Sinusoidal-modulated sidebands heterodyne with each other and generate the desired inter-modulation products after photodetection, which allows extracting both the modulation depth and half-wave voltage for the modulation and bias ports of the MZM. Our method is independent of bias voltages of the MZM, which can be canceled out by carefully choosing the sinusoidal-modulation frequencies. Moreover, the proposed method enables the low swing voltage for measuring both the modulation depth and half-wave voltage of MZMs. Experiments indicate that the proposed method features the simple setup and high accuracy for low-frequency response measurement ranging from 1 Hz to 1 MHz.

    Tools

    Get Citation

    Copy Citation Text

    Junfeng ZHU, Xinhai ZOU, Ying XU, Yutong HE, Yali ZHANG, Zhiyao ZHANG, Shangjian ZHANG, Yong LIU. Bias-Independent Inter-Modulation Method for Simultaneously Measuring Low-Frequency Modulation and Bias Half-Wave Voltages of Mach-Zehnder Modulators[J]. Photonic Sensors, 2023, 13(2): 230203

    Download Citation

    EndNote(RIS)BibTexPlain Text
    Save article for my favorites
    Paper Information

    Category: Regular

    Received: Oct. 25, 2022

    Accepted: Dec. 11, 2022

    Published Online: Mar. 21, 2024

    The Author Email: ZHANG Shangjian (sjzhang@uestc.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.1007/s13320-023-0678-9

    Topics