Comparison of the impact of nonlinearity in a p-i-n and an MUTC photodetector on electro-optic frequency combs
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Mahabadi, Seyed Ehsan Jamali, Thomas F. Carruthers, Curtis R. Menyuk, Jason D. McKinney, and Keith J. Williams. “Comparison of the Impact of Nonlinearity in a P-i-n and an MUTC Photodetector on Electro-Optic Frequency Combs.” Optics Letters 46, no. 4 (February 15, 2021): 813–16. https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.414026.
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This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
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Abstract
We calculate the impact of nonlinearity in both a p-i-n photodetector (PD) and a modified uni-traveling carrier (MUTC) PD on an RF-modulated frequency comb generated using 100-fs optical pulses with a 50-MHz repetition rate. We take into account bleaching (nonlinear saturation) that is due to the high peak-to-average-power ratio and contributes to the device nonlinearity. Nonlinear impairment of an RF-modulated continuous wave is typically characterized by the second- and third-order intermodulation distortion products (IMD2 and IMD3). In contrast, an RF-modulated frequency comb must be characterized by a distinct IMD2ₙ and IMD3ₙ for each comb line n. We calculate IMD2ₙ and IMD3ₙ in both p-i-n and MUTC PDs and compare the results. We also calculate the ratio of the IMD2ₙ power and the IMD3ₙ power to the fundamental power Sᵢₙ in both p-i-n and MUTC PDs. We find that nonlinear distortion has a greater impact at high frequencies in the MUTC PD than in the p-i-n PD.