Triangular pulse generation using a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator driven by a single-frequency radio frequency signal

Opt Lett. 2013 Nov 1;38(21):4491-3. doi: 10.1364/OL.38.004491.

Abstract

A simple scheme for the generation of full-duty-cycle triangular pulses is proposed and experimentally demonstrated using a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator driven by a single-frequency RF signal. By properly setting the bias voltages and the RF power, even-order harmonics in the optical intensity are suppressed, and the amplitude of the first-order harmonic is 9 times of that of the third-order harmonic. A periodical triangular pulse train is obtained in the time domain. 2.5, 5, and 10 GHz triangular pulse trains are experimentally generated, which verifies the feasibility of the proposed scheme.