Filter-free image-reject microwave photonic downconverter based on cascaded modulators

As essential equipment of the receiver, a novel filter-free image-reject mixer based on a Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) and a polarization-division multiplexing Mach–Zehnder modulator (PDM-MZM) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in this paper. The received radio frequency signal is applied to the MZM, and quadrature local oscillator signals are sent to the PDM-MZM, which includes two submodulators in parallel. After a polarization controller and a polarization beam splitter, quadrature intermediate frequency (IF) signals are obtained by two photodetectors. Image rejection is implemented by combining quadrature IF signals via an electrical 90° hybrid coupler. The scheme uses no filter, so the working frequency can be widely tuned and effective spectrum utilization is achieved. Experimental results verify that image rejection ratios can reach 50 dB. Moreover, the variation of the conversion gain is lower than 2 dB.