the present invention is , in one respect , a signal processor and method for generating modulated signals in an optical system . the present invention is , in another respect , a lightwave transmitter which may use the aforementioned signal processor for generating rf signals in a wireless communications system . referring to fig1 , a first embodiment of the signal processor of the present invention includes a light source 1 , an fm modulator 2 , and a linear fm - to - am converter 3 . the light source may be , for example , a semiconductor laser or a laser diode . the fm modulator modulates the frequency of a carrier signal with an input signal to produce an fm optical signal . although the modulator is shown as being separate from the light source , those skilled in the art can appreciate that the modulator may be incorporated within the laser if desired . the linear fm - to - am converter converts frequency variations in the optical signal output from the modulator into amplitude variations , thereby generating an amplitude - modulated optical signal . unlike conventional systems , the converter of the invention performs this function using a linear transfer function , which preferably has a high - slope efficiency for ensuring that the output optical signal has an amplitude which varies within a range suitable for use in the particular application to which the invention is being applied . referring to fig2 , a second embodiment of the system of the present invention is implemented within or in connection with a transmitter of a communications system . the second embodiment includes a unit 10 for generating an rf signal , an optical signal - generating unit 20 connected to the rf signal - generating unit , and a conversion unit 30 which may include a photodetector for converting an output of the optical signal - generating unit into an rf signal for transmission from unit 40 . if desired , a number of additional signal - processing features be included within this system in order to meet , for example , desired signal specifications . for example , an amplifier 25 may be connected between the optical - signal generating unit and the conversion unit for the purpose of increasing the gain of the signal output from the optical signal - generating unit . this amplifier is preferably an erbium - doped optical fiber , however those skilled in the art will appreciate that any known amplifier may be used . the optical - signal generating unit includes the signal processing arrangement described in accordance with the first embodiment of the invention . when implemented in accordance with the second embodiment , the optical - signal generating unit includes an fm laser unit 22 connected to a linear fm - to - am converter unit 24 . the fm laser unit may be an integrated distributed feedback ( dfb ) laser / modulator device . this laser is preferable in communications applications because of its ability to produce an fm response , and because it is wavelength - sensitive , thereby making it a tunable laser . fig3 shows an exemplary structure of the fm laser unit of the invention . this unit includes a semiconductor laser 25 , a frequency - modulation unit 26 , and circuit 27 for receiving a gain signal ( e . g ,. a dc current ) for pumping the laser above a predetermined threshold in order to ensure proper operation . in terms of structure , the laser may be an ingaasp laser formed from an active region 28 situated between two cladding layers 29 . when stimulated by the gain control signal , the active region emits light of one or more predetermined modes ( frequencies ). in the context of the invention , this light serves as the carrier signal for the modulation unit , which modulates the frequency of the carrier signal using the rf signal output from unit 10 . for communications applications , the laser wavelength may be selected to be 1 . 55 μm and the modulator material emission peak may be 1 . 48 μm . preferably , the device is fabricated using selective - area - growth techniques performed , for example , in one primary growth and two re - growths . the modulator output facet 21 may or may not be coated with an anti - reflection ( ar ) coating . when the modulator output facet is not ar - coated , the reflectivity from the facet will contribute to the phase change of the laser to thereby produce a highly efficient fm modulation with very small additional am modulation . the fm - to - am converter unit converts the frequency - modulated optical signal from the laser unit into an amplitude - modulated optical signal . in accordance with the present invention , the fm - to - am converter unit performs this function using a linear transfer function , which preferably has a high slope - efficiency for ensuring that the amplitude of the output optical signal varies within a range suitable for use in the particular application to which the invention is being applied . fig4 is a graph showing a linear transfer function which may be used in accordance with the present invention . in this graph , frequency along the horizontal axis is plotted against amplitude along the vertical axis . as shown , frequencies which lie within a bandwidth of between f c − b / 2 and f c + b / 2 are linearly transformed into amplitude values corresponding to coefficients a 1 and a 2 . with this transfer function , the converter of the invention effectively functions as a band pass optical filter which passes only those frequencies of the input fm optical signal which lie within b / 2 on either side of a center frequency f c . the bandwidth b , center frequency f c , and amplitude coefficients a 1 and a 2 may be selected by a system designer in order to conform the transmitter to a desired performance or range of operation . in accordance with one aspect of the invention , the bandwidth b may be approximately 20 ghz . from the foregoing discussion , it is apparent that the fm - to - am converter unit operates as a linear fm discriminator . this discriminator may be implemented in various forms . in fig2 , the discriminator is illustratively shown as being an interferometer which branches the fm optical signal from the laser unit along two optical fibers 21 and 22 . the difference between the optical lengths al of these fibers enables the interferometer to perform the above - described filter function when the two signals are combined at point 23 . examples of interferometers which can perform this filter / conversion function include mach - zender and fabry - perot interferometers . those skilled in the art can appreciate that other devices may also be used to perform this function . these devices include but are in no way limited to zero - crossing fm demodulators , phase - shift ( delay line ) fm demodulators , pll discriminators , or even a differentiator followed by an envelope detection circuit . fig5 is a flow chart showing steps included in the method of the present invention for generating a transmission signal in a communications system . the method includes as an initial step outputting a frequency - modulated optical signal from the fm laser unit . ( step 50 ). as previously discussed , the fm signal may be generated by frequency modulating a carrier signal within input rf signal , which in a communications system may be , for example , a voice or data signal . the signal output from the laser unit may be expressed in mathematical terms as follows : s fm = a cos 2π ( f c + k · x ( t )) t ( 1 ) where x ( t ) is the rf signal in current ( voltage ), k is the fm efficiency of the fm laser in hz / a hz / v ). a second step of the method includes converting the fm optical signal from the laser unit into an am optical signal using the linear converter of the present invention . ( block 55 ). as previously described , this converter functions as a band pass optical filter in accordance with a linear transfer function such as shown in fig4 . in performing this function , one of the edges ( e . g ,. the rising edge ) of the filter may be used to perform the fm - to - am conversion . the normalized transfer function at the rising edge may be expressed as follows : t ⁡ ( f ) = ( f - f c ) ⁢ a 2 - a 1 b + a 2 + a 1 2 ( 2 ) where f c is the carrier frequency , f = f c + kx ( t ) is the instant frequency after modulation , b is the usable bandwidth of the optical filter , and a 1 and a 2 are transfer coefficients at f c + b / 2 and f c − b / 2 . the optical power of the signal output from the filter may be expressed as follows : p 0 ⁢ t = p · l · t ⁡ ( f ) = pl · a 2 + a 1 2 + pl · a 2 - a 1 b · k · x ⁡ ( t ) ( 3 ) where p is the optical power at the transmitter and l is the insertion loss ( in units of − db ). the rf current from the photodiode of conversion unit 30 is i = plrkx ( t )( a 2 − a 1 )/ b , where r is the response of the photodiode . the rf current gain is g i = rplk ( a 2 − a 1 )/ b , and the rf voltage gain is g v = g i * r out / r in . the power gain is given by : g = g i 2 * r out / r in =( rplk ( a 2 − a 1 )/ b ) 2 ( 4 ) where r out and r in are load resistance at the rf output and input respectively . from the foregoing equations , it is clear that the rf gain is increased with optical power , fm efficiency , and the filter slope efficiency ( i . e ., ( a 2 − a 1 )/ b )). however , b is limited by carson &# 39 ; s rule , i . e ., b must be larger than 2f m . when the rf frequency and optical power ( p ) are given , the slope efficiency is limited by carson &# 39 ; s rule and the fm efficiency ( k ) is the most important factor in determining the rf gain . compared with the am modulated case , where the modulated signal is : s am = a 0 ( 1 + β x ( t )) cos ( ω c t ) ( 5 ) the rf current gain is 2rplβ and the power gain is g am =( 2rplβ ) 2 r out / r in where β is the modulation index ( β & lt ; 1 ). a third step of the method includes converting the am optical signal output from the linear converter to an rf signal for transmission . ( block 60 ). this step may be performed by a photodiode or other conventional detector . the system of the present invention outperforms conventional transmitters in a number of respects . for example , inserting the optical signal - generating unit of the invention into an rf transmitter , as shown in fig2 , produces an insertion gain , which , in turn , improves the quality and reliability of the signal transmissions . this is in stark contrast to conventional transmitters which often realize an insertion loss which must be compensated for in the form of increased design complexity and / or expense to the manufacturer . the system of the invention also consumes significantly less power compared with conventional rf transmitters , because it takes must less power to change the frequency of the fm laser unit than to change the power of the laser itself in order to meet desired performance criteria . also , integrating the fm discriminator with the fm laser produces a high - efficiency transmission scheme which is less expensive to implement than conventional rf transmitters . the system of the present invention may be subject to several modifications . for example , in fig2 the linear fm - to - am converter is shown as being an element separate from the fm laser unit . if desired , these two elements may be combined into a single unit for purposes of improving the integration of the system . also , the system of the invention may function as a control circuit located either within or connected to a signal transmitter . the processor of the invention may also be incorporated as a built - in modulator in a laser for purposes of performing optical transmissions . in terms of performance , the inventor has determined that an rf - lightwave transmitter constructed in accordance with the present invention may provide greater than 10 db rf insertion gain at less than 0 dbm optical power with high spur - free dynamic range ( dr sp ) and low - noise characteristics in an analog fiber link . this performance level has proven to be superior to conventional rf transmitters , thereby making the invention ideal for use in various communications and rf photonics applications . in assessing the performance of the invention , fm efficiency may be measured by inputting into the fm laser a single - frequency rf signal represented by x ( t )= a m cos ( ω m t ). the spectrum of the frequency modulated signal output from the laser may therefore be given by : s ⁡ ( ω ) = a ⁢ ∑ n = - ∞ ∞ ⁢ j n ⁡ ( β ) ⁡ [ δ ⁡ ( ω - ω c - n ⁢ ⁢ ω m ) + δ ⁡ ( ω + ω c + n ⁢ ⁢ ω m ) ] ( 6 ) where β = ka m / ω m and j m β is an n th order bessell function . fig6 shows a circuit arrangement that may be used to measure the fm efficiency of the system of the present invention in accordance with the aforementioned equations . this arrangement includes a externally tunable laser 61 , a mixer 62 , a detector 63 , and a spectrum analyzer 64 . in operation , the mixer mixes the signal output from the fm laser with the output from laser 61 with very small linewidth . the beating signal is detected by the detector and sent into the analyzer for purposes of measuring the spectrum of the fm laser . the rf spectrum may then be displayed for viewing . if the ratio of first line to second line of the fm spectrum is given by ( j 1 ( β )/ j 2 ( β )) 2 , the value of β may be calculated by measuring this ratio . the ratio of the carrier spectrum ( j 0 ) to the first fm spectrum ( j 1 ) to obtain the β may also be measured . in order to obtain a stable measurement , a frequency locking circuit may be used to lock the rf center frequency at the frequency difference of the two lasers . the advantage of measuring j 1 / j 2 using direct detection is that a very stable rf spectrum may be obtained in the spectrum analyzer . the fm efficiency of the invention was measured at different frequencies and rf powers , and then the rf gain and spurious free dynamic range was measured for the combined transmitter at different rf frequencies . fig7 is a graph showing the modulator small - signal am modulation response obtained for the invention . in this graph , the − 3 db frequency is around 6 hz . when the modulator is driven by an rf signal , the frequency spectra of the laser start to expand with an increase of modulated rf power . fig8 ( a )– 8 ( c ) are graphs showing the optical fm spectra of the laser of the present invention at different continuous wave ( cw ) modulation power and wavelengths / frequencies . fig8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ) show the spectrum obtained at an rf frequency of 3 ghz . fig8 ( c ) shows the spectrum obtained at an rf frequency of 5 ghz . fig9 is a graph showing the measured fm efficiency ( k ) versus the rf frequency obtained for the present invention . the graph shows that the efficiency is very high ( on the order of 200 ghz / v or 10 ghz / ma ) and quite flat over 6 ghz bandwidth ( less than 2 db fluctuation from 2 ghz to 8 ghz ). fig1 is a graph showing the measured rf gain for the invention obtained from an oscilloscope . in this graph , the horizontal axis is the input rf power applied to the fm laser . the optical signal output from the laser in fm format is discriminated ( converted to an am signal ) by the optical filter . the bandwidth of the optical filter is about 40 ghz , and the front edge of the filter was used to discriminate the fm signal . as previously explained , the output of the filter is in the am format again . fig1 shows this am signal as detected and displayed on the oscilloscope . for the invention , about 10 db of fm gain is observed when the rf frequency is approximately 2 to 3 ghz . since fm efficiency ( k ) varies with rf power , the rf gain also varies with rf power . as a result , a different spur - free dynamic range ( dr sf ) characteristic is obtained compared with am links . fig1 shows this characteristic in a graph plotting rf power gain obtained for the present invention . as shown , this graph contains two curves ( a and b ) which correspond to spurious - free dynamic range ( dr sp ) at a receiving power of − 2 . 3 dbm ( see point c ). two - tone rf signals ( f 1 = 2 ghz and f 2 = 2 . 5 ghz ) were used to achieve these results . the demodulated rf signal and the 3 rd order ( 2f 1 − f 2 , 2f 2 − f 1 ) inter - modulation distortion ( imd ) are also plotted on this graph . the dr sp is defined as the largest output rf signal when imd is below a laser noise floor . when beat with an external cavity tunable laser ( 100 khz line width ), the measured laser linewidth ( phase noise ) is around 60 mhz . this contributed to the measured laser noise floor of − 145 dbm / hz . the spurious - free dynamic range dr sp is about 120 db at 1 hz bandwidth . the dr sp characteristic of the invention is different from the dr sp characteristics of conventional am links in at least two significant ways . first , the invention obtains an rf gain which is positive and large ( more than 10 db gain ) and the optical power at the detector is only − 2 . 3 dbm . in contrast , the gain in most conventional am links is negative . second , in the invention the slope of the signal line is not unity because rf gain varies with input power . conventional am links cannot obtain this response . fig1 is a graph showing the spurious - free dynamic range obtained by the invention at different rf frequencies . as shown , more than 90 db dr sp can be achieved up to 5 ghz . this result shows that the non - linearity of the system of the invention is reasonably good . in summary , the fm modulated rf fiber - link of the present invention provides more than 10 db link gain . spurious - free dynamic range measured at different frequencies showed superior results compared with conventional systems , thereby making the invention suitable for use in both existing and further rf photonics applications . experimental results also show that the fm laser device has a very large fm efficiency , well controlled by the applied voltage at different frequencies . the invention differs from previous explanations that the spectral broadening is caused by coherent collapse . other modifications and variations to the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing disclosure . thus , while only certain embodiments of the invention have been specifically described herein , it will be apparent that numerous modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . the foregoing embodiments and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention . the present teaching can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses . the description of the present invention is intended to be illustrative , and not to limit the scope of the claims . many alternatives , modifications , and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art . in the claims , means - plus - function clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents but also equivalent structures .