System and method for suppression of even-order photodiode distortions

A system for suppressing even-order distortion in a photonic link, comprising:

• a laser light source for generating a laser light output;
• a phase modulator (PM) having a first input coupled to the laser light output, a second input for receiving an RF signal, and an output;
• a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) having a first input coupled to the PM output, a second input coupled to a DC bias voltage source, and an output;
• and
• a photodiode coupled to the MZI output,
• and where the MZI DC bias voltage is set at a value to generate an even-order distortion amplitude substantially equal to an even-order distortion amplitude from the photodiode and 180 degrees out of phase so as to substantially cancel the photodiode even-order distortion.

A system for suppressing even-order distortion in a photonic link, comprising:

• a laser light source for generating a laser light output;
• a polarization modulator (PolM) having a first input coupled to the laser light output, a second input for receiving an RF signal, and an output;
• a polarization controller having an input coupled to the PolM output and an output;
• a beam splitter having an input coupled to the polarization controller output and an output;
• and
• a photodiode having an input coupled to the beam splitter and an RF signal output, and where a modulation axis of the beam splitter is adjusted by the polarization controller to thereby operate as a DC bias control and generate an even-order distortion amplitude substantially equal to an even-order distortion amplitude from the photodiode and 180 degrees out of phase so as to substantially cancel the photodiode even-order distortion.