Microwave photonics reconfigurable mixer based on polarization modulator

A reconfigurable and stable mixer is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. It mainly consists of a dual-driven Mach–Zehnder modulator and a polarization modulator with several polarization controllers (PC) and polarizers (Pol). According to the theoretical analysis, different functions (such as single ended mixer, balanced mixer, I/Q mixer and image rejection mixer) can be realized by adjusting the PCs and Pols. The simulation results verify the possibility of multi-functions that realized by the reconfigurable mixer. In addition, another research on how the non-ideal parameters affect the image rejection ratio (ISR) and conversion efficiency of the mixer is also carried. The results show that both of them perform better as the extinction ratio gets higher. However, they are incurring a sharp decrease if the DC bias points deviate from the settled values. In the meantime, the results also indicate that the higher modulation indices lead to a better ISR. A 57.12 dB ISR can be achieved with conversion efficiency of − 9.53 dB.