  Fluctuations of the optical power incident on a photodiode can be converted
into phase fluctuations of the resulting electronic signal due to nonlinear
saturation in the semiconductor. This impacts overall timing stability (phase
noise) of microwave signals generated from a photodetected optical pulse train.
In this paper, we describe and utilize techniques to characterize this
conversion of amplitude noise to phase noise for several high-speed (>10 GHz)
InGaAs P-I-N photodiodes operated at 900 nm. We focus on the impact of this
effect on the photonic generation of low phase noise 10 GHz microwave signals
and show that a combination of low laser amplitude noise, appropriate
photodiode design, and optimum average photocurrent is required to achieve
phase noise at or below -100 dBc/Hz at 1 Hz offset a 10 GHz carrier. In some
photodiodes we find specific photocurrents where the power-to-phase conversion
factor is observed to go to zero.
