Photonic generation of power-efficient UWB pulses adaptable to multiple modulation formats using a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator

A simple scheme to generate power-efficient FCC-compliant UWB pulses is proposed by using a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DD-MZM). By adjusting the working parameters of the DD-MZM, a UWB quasi-quadruplet pulse with a spectral power efficiency of 49.2% and a 10-dB bandwidth of 6.22 GHz is obtained via computer simulations. Furthermore, this UWB generator can potentially support multiple modulation formats, including pulse polarity modulation, pulse-position modulation, on-off keying, and pulse-amplitude modulation. Since a single laser source is utilized, the proposed system is tolerant to fiber dispersion, and compatible with existing WDM-PONs.