Reduction of signal distortion in SOA-based optical RF switches

A novel method to reduce the signal distortion in SOA-based optical RF switches is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on optical phase modulation. A comparison between the SOA-based optical RF switches using phase modulation and intensity modulation is carried out. Results show that the scheme using optical phase modulation has ignorable nonlinear distortion even when the SOA is operated at deep saturated region. The spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of the proposed optical RF switch is also measured.