Study of the Optoelectronic Mixer Based on Modified Uni-Traveling Carrier Photodetector for Efficient Harmonic Mixing

We report the measurements and characterizations of optoelectronic harmonic mixing in a modified uni-traveling carrier photodetector (MUTC-PD). A systematic study of the bias voltage-dependent properties of the output power under different input optical power levels has been made and the proper operating conditions for different mixing modes have been investigated. In addition to the fundamental mixing, the higher-order harmonic mixing and RF subharmonic mixing products were obtained. The harmonic mixing mechanism is mainly attributed to the nonlinearity of the dependence of the output power on the bias voltage. Flat intermediate responses over a wide RF signal frequency range were measured for the fundamental mixing and the high-order RF subharmonic mixing. The feasible harmonic optoelectronic mixing in MUTC-PD shows great application potential in the wireless multichannel communication system.