Dispersion-tolerant millimeter-wave photonic link using polarization-dependent modulation

A novel technique to modulate one carrier in a millimeter-wave (mm-wave) photonic system is presented and experimentally evaluated. The technique utilizes the polarization dependence of an optical phase modulator and the properties of optical heterodyning and is demonstrated for both amplitude- and phase-modulated mm-wave signal outputs. Experimental verification of the technique is presented with transmission of up to 2.5-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero data, multilevel quadratic-amplitude modulation, and IEEE 802.11a WLAN data signals on a 40-GHz carrier over optical fiber and wireless transmission. The tolerance for fiber dispersion is investigated, and penalty-free transmission over 44 km is verified. The linearity of the system is evaluated by measuring the spurious-free dynamic range.