RF-photonic link using a resonantly-enhanced Mach-Zehnder optical modulator

An RF-photonic link using an optimized resonantly-enhanced optical intensity modulator (RE-MZM) is demonstrated. The enhanced modulator provides a 9dB link gain improvement when compared to a commercial, broadband modulator with a 3dB bandwidth of 11%. The noise figure of the link is experimentally measured as a function of optical power. Comparison to an un-enhanced modulator demonstrates that when the link noise is laser RIN limited, the enhanced modulator provides a significant improvement to noise figure. The intermodulation distortion of RE-MZM link is also analyzed and it is shown that the resonant enhancement does not impact modulation dynamic range.