The present disclosure provides a dither-free bias control of an optical modulator (OM) for the externally-modulated transmitter with the silicon-based Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM), while the nonlinear distortions (NLDs) are generated by the plasma dispersion effect of the silicon-based MZM. The present disclosure proposes to intentionally offset the bias point of the MZM from its quadrature points, and therefore the Mach-Zehnder interference (MZI)-induced even-order NLDs can be generated to cancel the plasma dispersion-induced even-order NLDs. In addition, the MZM bias control is also proposed to arbitrarily adjust and lock in the bias point of an OM so a transmitter with the integrated MZM may reach the best even-order NLDs by offsetting from the quadrature points. Moreover, while the proposed scheme could arbitrarily adjust and lock in the bias of MZM, the receiver sensitivity may be optimized by using such a bias control scheme to adjust the extinction ratio of multi-level signals.

Embodiments pertain to an optical transmitter, including a thermally unregulated light emitting device and a sloped or graded passband filter. The light emitting device is configured to receive a bias current and output an optical signal within a wavelength band. The sloped or graded passband filter is configured to attenuate an output power of the optical signal in the wavelength band. The light emitting device has a maximum bias current limit, a maximum operating temperature limit, and maximum and minimum output power limits, and the sloped or graded passband filter has an insertion loss in the wavelength band that decreases as the light emitting device temperature increases and/or the optical signal wavelength increases within the wavelength band. The attenuated optical signal is within the maximum and minimum output power limits when the bias current is at or below the maximum bias current limit and the light emitting device outputs the optical signal at or below the maximum operating temperature limit.

An optical transmission apparatus (100) includes an optical transmitter (200) including an optical modulator (220) and an observation optical modulator (230) that attenuate optical power of input continuous wave light by an electro-absorption effect and output the continuous wave light. The optical modulator (220) performs pulse amplitude modulation on the continuous wave light and outputs the optical signal. The apparatus also includes: a bias voltage generation unit (350) that generates a direct-current bias voltage and outputs the direct-current bias voltage to the optical modulator (220) and the observation optical modulator (230); a modulation signal generation unit (360) that generates an electrical signal for pulse amplitude modulation and outputs the electrical signal to the optical modulator (220); and a bias voltage control unit (340) that instructs the bias voltage generation unit (350) to adjust the direct-current bias voltage on the basis of an absorption amount of optical power in the optical modulator (220) and an absorption amount of optical power in the observation optical modulator (230).

A Mach-Zehnder optical modulator creates a first driving signal to be applied to a first section, and a second driving signal to be applied to a second section, and includes a generator, an optical modulator, and a setting unit. The generator generates a first dither signal and a second dither signal. The optical modulator optical modulates an optical signal into a quaternary or more value optical modulation signal by applying the first driving signal superimposed by the first dither signal, and by applying the second driving signal superposed by the second dither signal. The setting unit sets, when a length of the second section is n times as long as the first section, the first dither signal and the second dither signal to have a same phase, and sets such that an amplitude of the first dither signal is n times as large as that of the second dither signal.

A Mach-Zehnder optical modulator includes: a Mach-Zehnder interferometer that includes first and second arms formed on a silicon substrate, and a controller that controls bias current of the first and second arms. The controller controls the bias current of the first and second arms respectively to be a first offset value. The controller repeatedly executes a current adjustment process to increase the bias current of the first arm until a gradient of a phase shift amount of the first arm with respect to the bias current of the first arm reaches a target value. The controller controls the bias current of the second arm to be a second offset value that is smaller than the first offset value. The controller repeatedly performs the current adjustment process to increase the bias current of the first arm until a phase difference of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer reaches a target phase difference.

Example embodiments are described for a method and system for direct current (DC) bias control in downhole optical intensity modulators. After receiving an optical signal from a downhole intensity modulator, a harmonic distortion analysis is performed on the optical signal to determine whether a power spectrum of the optical signal deviates by a preselected amount from an expected power spectrum. The expected power spectrum occurs when a bias point is positioned at a quadrature point of a sinusoid associated with the optical signal. A DC bias voltage of the intensity modulator is subsequently adjusted in response to the harmonic distortion analysis.

An electro-optic device may include a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and one or more components. The one or more components may apply a DC bias with dither to a first branch and a second branch of the MZM and to arms of the first branch, and may determine a second harmonic of a first return signal. The one or more components may apply a DC bias with phase-shifted dither to the first branch and the second branch or to the arms of the first branch, and determine a second harmonic of a second return signal. The phase-shifted dither may be out of phase from the dither and have a frequency that matches a frequency of the dither. The one or more components may determine whether arms of the second branch of the MZM are operating at null, and may selectively adjust DC biases applied to the arms of the second branch.

A Mach-Zehnder optical modulator creates a first driving signal to be applied to a first section, and a second driving signal to be applied to a second section, and includes a generator, an optical modulator, and a setting unit. The generator generates a first dither signal and a second dither signal. The optical modulator optical modulates an optical signal into a quaternary or more value optical modulation signal by applying the first driving signal superimposed by the first dither signal, and by applying the second driving signal superposed by the second dither signal. The setting unit sets, when a length of the second section is n times as long as the first section, the first dither signal and the second dither signal to have a same phase, and sets such that an amplitude of the first dither signal is n times as large as that of the second dither signal.

An optical transmitter includes a bias supplying unit configured to supply a first bias voltage, a second bias voltage and a third bias voltage to an optical modulator. The bias supplying unit acquires a first voltage value at which an average value of an optical output signal becomes maximum by sweeping the first bias voltage, acquires a second voltage value at which an average value of the optical output signal becomes maximum by sweeping the second bias voltage, and acquires a third voltage value at which an average value of the optical output signal becomes maximum by sweeping the third bias voltage. The bias supplying unit determines a value of the first bias voltage based on the first voltage value, determines a value of the second bias voltage based on the second voltage value, and determines a value of the third bias voltage based on the third voltage value.

A system for transmitting a sequence of at least two data bursts in a fibre optical communications system includes: selection circuitry configured to select one of a data input value, a logical high value or a logical low value such that the selection circuitry selects the data input value during a data transmission period during a defined burst period and selects one of the logical high value and the logical low value during an extension time period during the defined burst period and immediately following the data transmission period, such that for the sequence of at least two bursts, at least one burst has a logical low value extension period and at least one burst has a logical high value extension period; drive circuitry configured to apply a current to a laser diode, the current corresponding to the value selected by the selection circuitry during the defined burst period or a zero value otherwise, the current being such that the laser diode is configured to provide an optical output; an optical sensor module configured to provide a sensor module output corresponding to the optical output of the laser diode; wherein the sensor module output is configured to provide an electrical output proportional to the laser diode's optical output corresponding to the logical high value and the logical low value in the sequence of at least two bursts, and further configured to provide an output corresponding to an average value of the sensor module output during only the data transmission period during the sequence of bursts; and a controller configured to receive values regarding desired minimum and maximum optical output power levels of the laser diode and to receive the electrical output from the optical sensor module proportional to the optical output power level corresponding to the logical high and the logical low values, and to receive the output corresponding to the average value of the sensor module output during only the data transmission period during the sequence of bursts; wherein the controller is configured to use the received information to provide control values for the drive circuitry.