RF Frequency Mixer Photonic Integrated Circuit

We present the first self-contained photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that downconverts RF signals. The frequency conversion is achieved by nonlinear optical phase modulation inside a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator. The frequency conversion linearity is enhanced by canceling the nonlinearities of the optical phase modulation and the MZ modulator. The PIC demonstrated ~110 dB · Hz
^2/3
spurious-free dynamic range.