138 CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 8, No. 2 / February 10, 2010
Optical ultra-wideband pulse generation and distribution
using a dual-electrode Mach-Zehnder modulator
Jing Li (ooo ¬¬¬)
1,2
, Tigang Ning (wwwJJJjjj)
1,2∗
, Li Pei ( www)
1,2
, and Chunhui Qi (ãããSSS¦¦¦)
1,2
1
Institute of Lightwave Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
2
Key Lab of All Optical Network and Advanced Telecommunication Network of EMC,
Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
∗
E-mail: tgning@bjtu.edu.cn
Received April 8, 2009
A novel approach to generate and distribute ultra-wideband (UWB) pulses in optical domain is investigated.
In this proposed scheme, a dual-electrode Mach-Zehnder modulator (DE-MZM) is biased at its quadrature
p oint so as to realize the linear response. Then the intensity of output optical field can be assumed to the
subtraction of two input Gaussian pulses. If the input Gaussian pulses are with the same sharp parameters
but different time delays, a quasi-monocycle-waveform UWB signal can be generated. If the input Gaussian
pulses are with different amplitudes and full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), a quasi-doublet-waveform
UWB signal can be generated. A transmission of the UWB signals through a 25-km single mode fiber is
carried out successfully. The results in both temporal and frequency domains are also presented.
OCIS co des: 060.0060, 060.2330, 060.2360, 060.5625.
doi: 10.3788/COL20100802.0138.
Ultra-wideband (UWB) systems have attracted a lot of
attention in recent years. Their abilities of delivering
high bit rate data, good wall penetration, low power con-
sumption, multi-path, and interference immunity make
them very promising solutions to many communication
problems, such as consumer indoor wireless communica-
tions, medical and military communicatios, etc. In 2002,
the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ap-
proved the unlicensed use of the UWB spectrum from 3.1
to 10.6 GHz for indoor communications, with a power
spectral density (PSD) lower than –41.3 dBm/MHz.
Based on the FCC definition, an UWB signal should have
a spectral bandwidth greater than 500 MHz or a frac-
tional bandwidth greater than 20%
[1,2]
. Since the PSD
of UWB signals is limited, the propagation of UWB sig-
nal is limited to several meters. The technology of UWB-
over-fiber can solve the problem by connecting the Center
Station (CS) and Base Station BS with optical fiber, tak-
ing the advantage of low loss, wideband, and immunity
to electromagnetic interference offered by optical fibers.
Another significant advantage of the optical domain is
that it can provide broadband all-optical signal process-
ing.
The choice of the UWB pulse shapes is critical to the
performance of the UWB system. Gaussian monocycle
and doublet pulses have been considered as promising
candidates for UWB communications
[3]
. There are two
different ways to generate UWB signal, one is electrical
scheme
[4,5]
and the other is optical scheme
[6−11]
. It is de-
sirable that the UWB signals can be generated directly
in the optical domain to avoid the costly electrical to op-
tical conversion. Several methods have been proposed to
generate and distribute Gaussian monocycle and doublet
pulses, including the generation of the UWB pulses us-
ing a frequency-shift-keying modulator
[7]
, a nonlinearly
biased Mach-Zehnder modulator
[8]
, a two-tap microwave
delay-line filter with coefficients of (1−1)
[9]
, or an optical
spectrum shaper with frequency-to-time mapping
[10,11]
.
In this letter, a novel approach to generating and dis-
tributing UWB pulses in optical domain is carried out
and proved. In the proposed system the bias voltages of
dual-electrode Mach-Zehnder modulator (DE-MZM) are
V
bias−up
= 0 and V
bias−down
= V
π
/2. Thus a DE-MZM
is biased at its quadrature point, and then the DE-MZM
is operated at the linear region of its transfer function.
The intensity of the output optical field can be assumed
to the subtraction of two input Gaussian pulses. If the
two Gaussian pulses are with different time delays, a
Gaussian quasi-monocycle pulse can be generated; if the
two Gaussian pulses are with different amplitudes and
full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), a Gaussian quasi-
doublet pulse can be generated. By adjusting the pa-
rameters of system, an UWB quasi-monocycle or quasi-
doublet pulse is obtained at the output of a photodiode
(PD). The transmission of the UWB signals through a 25-
km single mode fiber (SMF) is carried out successfully.
Vertification based on the proposed approach are carried
out and the results in b oth temporal and frequency do-
mains are presented.
With a DE-MZM biased at quadrature point, Fig. 1
shows a conceptual diagram of the generation and dis-
tribution of UWB monocycle pulse and UWB doublet
pulse. As can be seen from Fig. 1, the optical field at
the input of the DE-MZM can be written as
E
in
= E
c
exp [jω
c
t + jφ (t)] , (1)
where E
c
denotes the amplitude of the optical field, ω
c
represents the angular frequency of the optical carrier,
and φ (t) is the phase noise of the laser diode. The
DE-MZM is biased at its quadrature point. The elec-
trical driving signals sent into two arms of DE-MZM are
the Gaussian pulses g
1
(t) and g
2
(t). Moreover, the bias
voltages of DE-MZM are V
bias−up
= 0 and V
bias−down
=
V
π
/2. Thus the DE-MZM is operated at the linear region
of its transfer function. The optical field at the output
1671-7694/2010/020138-04
c
° 2010 Chinese Optics Letters