Impact of laser chirp on carrier and IMD power in electro-optical upconverted millimetre-wave fibre optic links

The impact of laser chirp on carrier and third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD) power in electro-optically upconverted millimetre-wave fibre optic links with dispersion is theoretically and experimentally analysed for a Mach-Zehnder modulator biased at minimum. It is shown that a strong chirp significantly reduces the fibre transmission distance; moderate chirp, however, is highly beneficial both for the detected power and maximum transmission distance.