All-optical and broadband microwave fundamental/sub-harmonic I/Q down-converters.

Microwave I/Q down-converters are frequently used in image-reject super heterodyne receivers, zero intermediate frequency (zero-IF) receivers, and phase/frequency discriminators. However, due to the electronic bottleneck, conventional microwave I/Q mixers face a serious bandwidth limitation, I/Q imbalance, and even-order distortion. In this paper, photonic microwave fundamental and sub-harmonic I/Q down-converters are presented using a …