Open AccessPhotonic-based reconfigurable microwave frequency divider using two cascaded dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators
Author(s) -
Yu Chen,
Pengcheng Zuo,
Taixia Shi,
Yang Chen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.403622
Subject(s) - frequency divider , microwave , phase noise , optics , physics , photonics , intermediate frequency , signal (programming language) , offset (computer science) , frequency offset , optoelectronics , power dividers and directional couplers , radio frequency , telecommunications , computer science , orthogonal frequency division multiplexing , channel (broadcasting) , quantum mechanics , programming language
A photonic-based reconfigurable microwave frequency divider using two cascaded dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators (DP-MZMs) is proposed. The first DP-MZM is driven by the input microwave signal, whereas the second DP-MZM is incorporated in an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) loop and driven by the feedback signal. By properly setting the working conditions of the two DP-MZMs, the frequency of the input microwave signal is divided and the frequency-divided signal will oscillate in the OEO loop, with a tunable frequency-division factor determined by the bias conditions of the DP-MZMs. An experiment is performed. The reconfigurable microwave frequency divider is demonstrated with a frequency-division factor of 1.5, 2.5, 2, or 3, and the phase noise of the frequency-divided signals is also evaluated, which has an improvement of 3.22, 7.60, 5.80, or 9.49 dB at 10-kHz frequency offset, respectively, compared with that of the input microwave signals.