480Mbps/1 Gbps radio-over-fiber link based on a directly modulated III-V-on-Silicon DFB laser

In this work we characterize the RF modulation characteristics and the dynamic range of a III-V-on-Silicon DFB laser. The direct modulation of this laser is demonstrated with a 1Gbps radio-over-fiber link at a carrier frequency up to 24 GHz using QPSK modulation. 480Mbps 64-QAM transmission at 3.5 GHz carrier frequency is demonstrated as well. In the 480 Mbps experiment both the transmitter and receiver are silicon photonic components, providing a SFDR of about 90 dBHz
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for the complete optical link including receiver electronics as well.