Reconfigurable microwave photonic mixer based on dual-polarization dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator

We report a reconfigurable microwave photonic mixer with multiple functions and wide bandwidth. By changing the photodetection configuration, the mixer can be conveniently reconfigured to realize four functions: single-ended mixing, I/Q mixing, double balanced mixing and image rejection mixing. Furthermore, the filter-free system has a wide bandwidth and the ability to perform both frequency up-conversion and down-conversion. The proposed reconfigurable mixer is based on a dual-polarization dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DP-DPMZM). The optical signal is modulated by the DP-DPMZM and split into two orthogonally polarized signals, which are combined by a 90° optical hybrid and detected by photodetectors. The experimental results show that the mixer has a wide bandwidth from 2 GHz to 30 GHz with a 30 dB spur suppression, and the image rejection ratio of the image rejection mixer is over 30 dB.