  The linearization of a microwave photonic link based on a dual-parallel
Mach-Zehnder modulator is theoretically described and experimentally
demonstrated. Up to four different radio frequency tones are considered in the
study, which allow us to provide a complete mathematical description of all
third-order distortion terms that arise at the photodetector. Simulations show
that a complete linearization is obtained by properly tuning the DC bias
voltages and processing the optical carrier and. As a result, a suppression of
17 dBm is experimentally obtained for the third-order distortion terms, as well
as a SDFR improvement of 3 dB. The proposed linearization method enables the
simultaneous modulation of four different signals without the need of
additional radio frequency components, which is desirable to its implementation
in integrated optics and makes it suitable for several applications in
microwave photonics.
