Ultra-short optical pulse shaping using semiconductor optical amplifier

Optical ultra-short pulse compression and amplification using semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is presented. Using pump-probe pulse configuration, we present an SOA model which includes the nonlinear effects such as, spectral hole burning (SHB), carrier heating (CH), two-photon absorption (TPA) and group velocity dispersion (GVD) taking into account gain spectrum effect. Then by adjusting time delay between the pump pulse and probe pulse we use the model for simultaneous compression and amplification of probe pulse. We also analyze the four wave mixing (FWM) signal during pulse compression process. It is shown that dispersive effect of GVD on output probe pulse becomes more important for larger cavity length and probe-pump pulses relative time delays.     

Temporal and spectral properties of contra-propagating picosecond optical pulses in SOA

A useful analysis of contra-propagating optical pulses in semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is presented. Pulse temporal and spectral evolutions are investigated by resolving coupled equations describing pulse field propagation and SOA gain dynamics. With reference to the case of single pulse propagation, collision between pulses tends to maintain a good time-bandwidth product of amplified pulse and could provide a temporal compression by about 10% compared to pulse’s initial width.     

On the compensation of chirp induced from semiconductor optical amplifier on RZ data using optical delay interferometer

The capability of an optical delay interferometer (ODI) to compensate the chirp induced on return-to-zero pulses amplified by a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) when operated under stressful conditions for its gain dynamics is investigated and demonstrated through extensive numerical simulation. The phase response of the ODI, which through its variation per time increment determines the chirp, is calculated at its crossed output port using an explicit expression. The theoretical analysis reveals that cascading the ODI after the SOA can reduce both the magnitude of the chirp and the variations of its peaks as well as those of the amplified pulses while ensuring error-free performance even for a tight combination of the critical parameters. In order for this goal to be successfully accomplished while not distorting the pulses acted on by the ODI the offset introduced by this passive element is computationally found that it must not exceed 10% of their repetition interval. Therefore the scheme can constitute a promising technological option for efficiently exploiting the chirp of an SOA and simultaneously using the SOA as gain block for direct amplification purposes.     

Analysis of ultrafast nonlinear phenomena��s influences on output optical pulses and four-wave mixing characteristics in semiconductor optical amplifiers

We have analysed the output pulse characteristics of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). It is shown that they can be modified due to the variation of input parameters, such as, gain, input pulsewidth, input pulse energy and effects imposed by the medium. Therefore, the influence of these parameters are analysed on the output pulse shape, spectrum, chirp and pulsewidth. We have used the nonlinear propagation equation taking into account the gain spectrum dynamics, gain saturation which depends on carrier depletion, carrier heating, spectral hole-burning, group velocity dispersion, self-phase modulation and two photon absorption. We have used the finite-difference beam propagation method to simulate the wave evolution both in time and spectral domain in the SOA. We have also simulated the four-wave mixing characteristics between pulses for various input pulses. An accurate output pulse shape can be achieved by controlling the mentioned parameters. To the authors knowledge, pulse shaping in co-propagation regime due to medium effect and input pulse shapes in presence of all nonlinear effects relevant to picosecond regime have been studied comprehensively, for the first time in this work.     

高斯脉冲在半导体光放大器中传输的解析表征

采用解析方法,在考虑材料损耗和色散的情况下,详细研究了无啁啾高斯脉冲和啁啾高斯脉冲在半导体光放大器中传输的物理过程,分析了强度增益、脉冲宽度和频率啁啾与线宽增强因子、色散系数、小信号增益特征参数及初始啁啾之间的关系。结果表明:当输入变换极限的高斯脉冲时,色散会引起增益压缩,脉冲展宽和频率啁啾;同样情况下,线宽增强因子越大,脉宽加宽越明显,输出脉冲啁啾越大,且随着线宽增强因子的增大,输出脉冲啁啾极大值向特征参数值较小的一边移动。当输入啁啾高斯脉冲时,初始脉冲啁啾越大,增益压缩越明显,啁啾系数为正时,脉冲单纯展宽,输出啁啾随特征参数的增大而逐渐减小,啁啾系数为负时,初始啁啾与群速度色散导致的啁啾相互竞争,致使脉冲先被压缩后被展宽;脉冲最窄处对应的特征参数随线宽增强因子的增大而先增大后减小,输出啁啾随特征参数的增大而经历振荡后趋于平稳。     

An approach to enhance the receiver sensitivity with SOA for optical communication systems

In this paper, we investigate an SOA (semiconductor optical amplifier) preamplifier structure by optimizing the carrier lifetime in order to reduce the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and crosstalk, with adequate gain increase. This proposed SOA optical preamplifier has no need of optical alignment and antireflection coating. This structure of SOA eliminates the need of optical filter, and exhibits large tolerance to the input light wavelength. The receiver sensitivity is investigated for single and multi channel transmission links. The received power of − 50.34 dBm is observed at bit error rate (BER) 10^− 12 for 10 Gb/s with PIN receiver. Further, the impact of gain, amplified spontaneous emission power and gain variation for different carrier lifetime with input power for OOK system is illustrated. The proposed SOA has constant gain of 30.06 dB up to gain saturation for carrier lifetime 0.18 ns. It is predicted that low value of carrier lifetime suffers less from ASE noise.     

Generation of 10-GHz duty-cycle tunable square optical pulse in an SOA-based mode-locked fiber laser

We demonstrate the generation of 10-GHz optical square pulses by injecting a picosecond pulse train into an SOA-based mode-locked fiber laser. The novel scheme exploits nonlinear effects and gain saturation phenomenon in the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). This technique uses gain-compression dynamics between the input pulses and the generated ones in gain-saturated SOA to form square pulses. The center wavelength of the generated optical square pulse can be tuned from 1530 to 1570 nm by adjusting the center wavelength of the optical band pass filter (OBPF) in the SOA-based mode-locked fiber ring laser. The duty cycle of the output pulse can be tuned from 12.7 to 88.4%, which strongly depends on the input power and intra-cavity power.     

All-optical ultrawideband monocycle generation utilizing gain saturation of a dark return-to-zero signal in a semiconductor optical amplifier

We demonstrate a simple and compact scheme to generate ultrawideband (UWB) monocycle pulses utilizing gain saturation of a dark return-to-zero (RZ) signal in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). When optical pulses with a dark RZ format propagate through the SOA, the output power at the rising edge will be overamplified compared with that at other durations due to the gain unsaturation. As a result, the output pulses are monocyclelike. The UWB frequency spectra at different injected currents, different input pulse widths, and different input wavelengths are analyzed. Our experiments show that the monocycle generation has good tolerance to the SOA bias current and the input signal wavelength.     

Theoretical analysis and performance investigation of ultrafast all-optical Boolean XOR gate with semiconductor optical amplifier-assisted Sagnac interferometer

A comprehensive theoretical model of an ultrafast all-optical Boolean XOR gate implemented with a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-assisted Sagnac interferometer is presented. The model accounts for the SOA small signal gain, linewidth enhancement factor and carrier lifetime, the switching pulses energy and width and the Sagnac loop asymmetry. By undertaking a detailed numerical simulation, the influence of these key parameters on the metrics that determine the quality of switching is thoroughly investigated and simple design rules are extracted for their proper selection so as to ensure optimum operation. The obtained results are in good agreement with the published experimental measurements and confirm the feasibility of realizing the gate at 10 Gb/s with fairly high performance. The model can be extended for studying more complex all-optical circuits of enhanced functionality in which the XOR gate is the basic building block.     

Theoretical analysis of pattern effect suppression in semiconductor optical amplifier utilizing optical delay interferometer

The ability of an optical delay interferometer (ODI) to suppress the pattern effect that is inherently present in a straightforward, solitary semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) whose dynamic response is slower than the period of its driving high-speed return-to-zero (RZ) data signal is theoretically investigated. For this purpose an existing comprehensive model that simulates and links the operation of these two elements is methodically applied to their concatenated configuration. In this manner an extensive set of curves is numerically obtained, which allow to analyze and assess the impact of the input pulse energy and width as well as of the SOA carrier lifetime, linewidth enhancement factor and small signal gain on the amplitude modulation of the transmitted sequence at the output of each one of these block units. Their thorough study and interpretation reveals that the employment of the ODI can significantly reduce the value of this quality metric resulting from a single SOA only. The main offered benefit, however, is that any technical restrictions regarding the involved critical parameters can be considerably relaxed while at the same time their useful operational range can be extended. These important findings highlight the necessity of placing this passive device after the SOA and exploiting it in order to effectively alleviate the detrimental pattern-dependent degradation. This fact in conjunction with its overall practicality renders it a promising candidate for enhancing, within the frame of the proposed scheme, the performance of SOAs that are employed as pure amplification elements in fiber-optic communication systems and networking applications.     

Spectrum reshaping of amplified pulse in silicon nanowaveguide

A device consisting of a cascaded semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and silicon on insulator (SOI) optical waveguide is presented to amplify and reshape the frequency spectrum of optical pulses in the picoseconds time duration. Numerical simulations show that the output spectrum of the amplified pulse by SOA can be effectively reshaped by utilizing the SOI waveguide. The length of the SOI waveguide may be judiciously adjusted to significantly reduce the frequency chirp of the output pulse from the SOA resulting in reshaping of the output spectrum. We find that the property of pulse spectrum is sensitive to the input pulse power and its temporal width.     

All-optical switchable UWB pulses generation,modulation and transmission

We proposed and demonstrated all-optical polarity- and shape-switchable ultrawideband (UWB) Gaussian pulses generation schemes using a single polarization interferometer (PI) or a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) cascaded by a PI. When an optical signal with dark return-to-zero (RZ) format propagates directly through a single PI, a pair of polarity-reversed UWB monocycle pulses and a positive UWB doublet pulse is acquired respectively only by adjusting the polarization controllers, without changing the bias of the intensity modulator. If a SOA is connected at the input of the PI to firstly implement the first-order differential function to the input dark RZ pulse utilizing gain saturation effect of the SOA, both polarity- and shape-switchable UWB Gaussian monocycle and doublet pulses are all acquired from the cascaded system. Moreover, if a nonreturn-to-zero control signal is introduced into the SOA, utilizing the cross-gain modulation (XGM) effect of the SOA and the differential characteristic of PI, all-optical shape modulation to UWB signals can be realized, and the polarity of the modulated UWB pulses can also be switched. Also, UWB signal transmission characteristics in fiber link were investigated.     

Simulation and evaluation of phase noise for optical amplification using semiconductor optical amplifiers in DPSK applications

A thorough simulation and evaluation of phase noise for optical amplification using semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is very important for predicting its performance in differential phase-shift keyed (DPSK) applications. In this paper, standard deviation and probability distribution of differential phase noise at the SOA output are obtained from the statistics of simulated differential phase noise. By using a full-wave model of SOA, the noise performance in the entire operation range can be investigated. It is shown that nonlinear phase noise substantially contributes to the total phase noise in case of a noisy signal amplified by a saturated SOA and the nonlinear contribution is larger with shorter SOA carrier lifetime. It is also shown that Gaussian distribution can be useful as a good approximation of the total differential phase noise statistics in the whole operation range. Power penalty due to differential phase noise is evaluated using a semi-analytical probability density function (PDF) of receiver noise. Obvious increase of power penalty at high signal input powers can be found for low input OSNR, which is due to both the large nonlinear differential phase noise and the dependence of BER vs. receiving power curvature on differential phase noise standard deviation.     

基于SOA和NOLM的光脉冲放大与压缩的设计模型

设计了一种基于半导体光放大器(SOA)和非线性光学环镜(NOLM)的光脉冲放大与压缩的模型。数值研究结果表明:在NOLM中,当调节合适的控制脉冲的输入和初始时延时,具有较低峰值功率、宽度为几十皮秒的高斯信号脉冲经此模型放大压缩后,可以得到脉冲峰值增益高、脉冲宽度窄以及基本无基座的高质量超短信号光脉冲。     

重复脉冲注入下半导体光放大器皮秒增益和折射率非线性的数值模拟

对重复周期小于载流子寿命的重复脉冲注入的情况，从速率方程出发，用分段模型对半导体光放大器的皮秒增益和折射率非线性进行了数值模拟，给出了重复脉冲注入下输出光脉冲时域波形的畸变、注入光脉冲引起的增益和相位变化，输出光脉冲上的频率啁啾随注入脉冲数增加的变化，以及归零光信号码流引起的增益和相位变化。     

All-optical differentiator based on cross-gain modulation in semiconductor optical amplifier

A novel scheme for carrying out all-optical intensity differentiation is proposed and demonstrated based on the cross-gain modulation (XGM) in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Because of the XGM, the mathematical definition of differentiation can be expressed by the combined power of the amplified pump pulse and the delayed modulated probe pulse at the output of the SOA. The final waveform and error evolution versus relative time delay between two pulses is investigated. Interestingly enough, it is shown that the acquisition of good differentiation is possible under zero time delay. A further study of zero time delay has been performed for various data rates and shows that the carrier recovery time of the SOA is a speed-limiting factor of the scheme.     

半导体光放大器超快折射率变化动态特性的研究

建立了分析半导体光放大器（SOA）飞秒量级超快动态特性的数值模型,考虑了增益色散以及群速度色散,能更精确地反映飞秒级超短脉冲经过SOA时的传输特性.基于该模型,可以分析由载流子密度脉动以及载流子加热对折射率变化的影响.同时,也考虑了不同的工作条件以及SOA的结构参数对折射率的影响.理论分析和模拟实验为优化SOA的结构、改善SOA飞秒量级超高速动态特性提供了理论指导. 关键词： 半导体光放大器 折射率动态特性 增益色散 群速度色散     

半导体光放大器增益及发光特性的理论研究

半导体光放大器(SOA)的非线性特性在光开关、波长变换、光逻辑运算中有重要的应用.研究了注入电流、入射光波长及SOA有源区长度对SOA增益和发光功率的影响.数值模拟结果表明:注入电流的增加,会引起载流子浓度的增加,且使SOA增益趋于饱和的速率加快;不同的SOA模型存在一个最佳输入光波长,在此波长附近有较好的增益特性;加长半导体光放大器有源区长度可获得更大增益,同时提高了器件的响应速率.     

Characteristics of wavelength conversion of short optical pulses in quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers

The characteristics of short optical pulse four-wave mixing (FWM) and amplification in quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers (QD-SOAs) are investigated taken into account the effect of the multi-discrete QD energy levels. Different saturation and recovery response for the electron and hole states are observed, which is attributed to different energy spacing between the energy states. We found that the 3 dB saturation energy of QD-SOA depends on the pulse width for short input pulses. Also, the optimum time delay between the probe and pump pulses in QD-SOAs, which provides maximum FWM efficiency in QD-SOAs, is smaller than the optimum delay in quantum well SOA.     

Single SOA based all-optical adder assisted by optical bandpass filter: Theoretical analysis and performance optimization

A simple and compact configuration of all-optical adders implemented with a single semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and optical bandpass filter (OBF) is presented in this paper. A comprehensive SOA model is put forward to investigate the output characteristics of the all-optical adders. The numerical simulation results demonstrate the influence of these key parameters, including input pulse peak power, pulsewidth, repetition rate, and OBF characteristics. Moreover some design rules are extracted for the proper selection of these parameters so as to ensure optimum performance. The obtained results confirm the feasibility of our configuration.