A single sideband radio-over-fiber system with improved dynamic range incorporating a dual-electrode dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator

A novel single sideband (SSB) radio-over-fiber (ROF) system based on a dual-electrode dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DE-DPMZM) is proposed, in which the Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) is used to produce a single sideband signal and the dual-parallel structure is used to suppress the third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) to improve the spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of the ROF system. A theoretical analysis is given and simulation experiment is carried out. The results show that the proposed scheme can improve 25 dB in SFDR which is up to 127.854 dB Hz2/3 compared with the conventional SSB ROF system. In addition, the single sideband modulation can extend the transmission distance of optic signal.