NONLINEARITY OF P-I-N PHOTODETECTORS

At higher operating frequencies, the field dependence of the carrier velocity in p-i-n photodetectors generates harmonics and intermodulation products that can degrade the dynamic range of RF fiber-optic links. We present both a perturbational theory and measured harmonic data for a p-i-n photodiode operated at very high power densities which show that this and other detector nonlinear effects need not seriously compromise link performance.