Photonic analog-to-digital converter design optimization through photodiode pulsed response

To optimize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a photonically-sampled analog-to-digital converter, we simulate and experimentally verify the pulsed laser response of two commercial-off-the-shelf PIN photodiodes with respect to their 3-dB bandwidths. A 12.3-GHz photodiode showed an SNR advantage of 7.19 dB over a 4.6-GHz photodiode.