Graphical Approach for Evaluating Performance Limitations in Externally Modulated Analog Photonic Links

We present a novel graphical approach for evaluating the performance of analog photonic links employing an external intensity modulator biased at quadrature. A single graph is sufficient to grasp the engineering tradeoffs among noise figure, third-order spurious-free dynamic range, and RF gain for various values of half-wave voltage and dc photocurrent.