RF response of analog optical links employing optical phase conjugation

The RF transfer function of analog optical links employing optical phase conjugation (OPC) for the compensation of the carrier suppression effect is investigated theoretically. It is well known that the ultimate performance of the OPC technique depends on several system parameters such as fiber span lengths, dispersion characteristics, input optical powers, or optical transmitter chirp. The influence of these parameters on the RF system response is studied by means of simulation, showing that the main degradation of the equalized response is due to the joint action of nonlinear effects and asymmetric optical power change along the fiber spans.