Multi-Order Nonlinear Distortions Analysis and Suppression in Phase Modulation Microwave Photonics Link

The theoretical relationship between nonlinear distortions and all optical sidebands (OSBs) in phase-modulation microwave photonics link (PM-MPL) is analyzed. Multi-order nonlinear distortions are suppressed using a closed-form solution to calculate the OSBs transmission coefficients to propose a method to highly linearize PM-MPL based on optical spectrum vector manipulation (OSVM). Theoretical expressions of spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) are derived when third-, fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-order nonlinear distortions are suppressed. Experimental results show that third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) can be suppressed to increase the overall SFDR from 100.9 dB·Hz^2/3 for a link without nonlinear compensation to 122.0 dB·Hz^6/7 for a link with the compensation applied.