Terahertz Replica Generation of Ultra-High Data Rate Transmission in an Electro-Optical Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Mach-Zehnder Interferometer System

This article presents an analysis of an electro-optical up-converter relying on a semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI). The pulsed control signal is generated by an optical pulse clock (OPC) with a repetition rate of fs= 19.5 GHz. The intermediate frequency (IF) signal, which carries the modulation format known as quadratic phase shift keying (QPSK) at a frequency fIF, is shifted at the output of the SOA-MZI to high outlet mixing frequencies nfs +/- fIF, where n represents the harmonic order of the OPC. To examine the characteristics of the sampled QPSK signals, we employ the Virtual Photonics Inc. (VPI) emulator and evaluate them using significate metrics like error vector magnitudes (EVMs), conversion gains, and bit error rates (BERs). The up-mixing process is mainly achieved through the cross-phase modulation (XPM) effect in the SOA-MZI, which operates within a 195.5 GHz ultrahigh frequency (UHF). The electro-optical SOA-MZI up-converter demonstrates consistent uplifting conversion gains across the scope of the output mixing frequencies. The simulated conversion gain deteriorates from 38 dB at 20 GHz to 13 dB at 195.5 GHz. The operational efficiency of the electro-optical SOA-MZI design, employing the standard modulation approach, is also evaluated by measuring the EVM values. The EVM attains a 24% performance level at a data rate of 5 Gbit/s in conjunction with the UHF of 195.5 GHz. To corroborate our results, we compare them with real-world experiments conducted with the UHF of 59 GHz. The maximum frequency range of 1 THz is attained by increasing the OPC repetition rate. Ultimately, through elevating the control frequency to 100 GHz, the generation of terahertz replicas of the 4096-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) compound signal becomes achievable at heightened UHF, extending 1 THz, while maintaining a data transmission rate of 120 Gbit/s and upholding exceptional performance characteristics.