Gallium arsenide metal-semiconductor-metal photodiodes as optoelectronic mixers for microwave single-sideband modulation.
Gallium arsenide (GaAs) metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors have unique properties including high-bandwidth, linearity, and biphase response that make them suitable as mixers and programmable weights for microwave and communications applications. An optical technique for microwave single-sideband modulation that uses GaAs MSM photodiodes as mixers is reported. It uses MSM Schottky photodiodes formed in a GaAs/Al(0.3)Ga(0.7)As materials system to detect microwave in-phase and quadrature signals on optical carriers. Modulation of the photodetector bias voltages results in a single-sideband modulation of the microwave signal. Radio frequency and undesired-sideband suppression of 36 and 27 dB, respectively, were achieved. The optical wavelength was 850 nm, and the bandwidth of the photodetectors was > or = 29 GHz.
Anderson
G W
GW
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 20375-5347, USA.
Chipman
L E
LE
Kub
F J
FJ
Park
D
D
Frankel
M Y
MY
Carruthers
T F
TF
Modolo
J A
JA
Hobart
K D
KD
Katzer
D S
DS