What is the RF electrical bandwidth?
This is the operating range of the device, otherwise known as the 3-dB frequency, and refers to the width of the electronic resonance for our resonant electro-optic modulators. It is the frequency where the electrical power transferred to the modulator has decreased by a factor of two. This is equivalent to where the modulator optical performance has changed by 1.414, since modulation is proportional to electrical field strength and not electromagnetic power. This bandwidth is typically 0.5% of the resonant frequency (this corresponds to ±0.25% of the resonant frequency). For example, the Model 4431 operating at 3 GHz has a typical electronic bandwidth of about 15 MHz (or, 0.5% of 3 GHz). These modulators are also equipped with a tuning element that allows the resonant frequency to be tuned manually over a range of at least 100 MHz. So, the Model 4431 operating at 3 GHz can generally be manually tuned from about 2.95 to 3.05 GHz.
