Cancellation of distortions using polarization modulation in Time-Stretched Analog-to-Digital conversion

In this paper, we show analytically for the first time that the complementary phase properties of a polarization modulator can be utilized to cancel the dispersion-induced second-order distortions in a Time-Stretched Analog-to-Digital Converter (TSADC). Using differential operation and digital post-processing in the form of arcsine operation, this enables the suppression of system nonlinearities-induced harmonics as well as the common-mode intensity noise and optical-amplifier-induced beat noise.