Phase Modulation With Interferometric Detection as an Alternative to Intensity Modulation With Direct Detection for Analog-Photonic Links

We analyze the performance of analog-photonic links employing phase modulation with interferometric demodulation and compare it to intensity-modulation direct-detection links. We derive expressions for RF gain, RF noise figure, compression dynamic range, and spurious-free dynamic range for both architectures. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that phase-modulated links can outperform intensity-modulated links over substantial frequency ranges.