Optical Self-Interference Cancellation With Frequency Down-Conversion Based on Cascade Modulator

A novel approach to simultaneous radiofrequency self-interference cancellation (SIC) and frequency down-conversion in a unified system is proposed and demonstrated experimentally based on cascade Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZM). The local oscillator signal is injected into the MZM1, whereas the received RF signal and the reference signal are fed into MZM2 and MZM3. After photoelectrical conversion by a balanced photodetector, the desired intermediate frequency signal with SIC is obtained. The cancellation depth for the single frequency SIC with frequency down-conversion is around 38 dB, and that for a wideband signal is around 19 dB. No electrical delay and attenuation are used in the proposed system, so it can potentially reach a wider frequency band and a higher cancellation depth.