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.     

Fundamentals of optical amplifiers

The minimum noise figure of linear phase-insensitive amplifiers is 3 dB, according to the constraint of the uncertainty principle. Laser amplifiers, parametric amplifiers and Raman amplifiers obey the general quantum limit in an ideal case. A degenerate parametric amplifier is a phase-sensitive linear amplifier, and thus is a noiseless amplifier with a noise figure of 0 dB. The noise figure degradation in a practical amplifier and the signal-to-noise ratio design of an optical amplifier system are presented. Several other amplifier characteristics, such as signal gain, frequency bandwidth and saturation output power, are also discussed.     

Ultra-broadband amplified spontaneous emission source by using heterogeneous optical amplifier

In this work, we propose and experimentally investigate an ultra-broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light source with 113.8 nm bandwidth (1446.2 to 1560.0 nm) by using a cascaded two-stage optical amplifier, which is consisted of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA, 1st stage) and erbiumdoped fiber amplifier (EDFA, 2nd stage), when the output intensity is above ?35 dBm/0.01 nm. And, the EDFA only uses a 3 m long erbium-doped fiber (EDF) with a 27 mW pumping power and SOA is driven at 200 mA bias current. Moreover, the proposed amplifier also can provide a broadband gain amplification of 114 nm in the wavelengths of 1464.0 and 1578.0 nm with the noise figure distribution of 6.8 to 8.1 dB.     

Slow light using semiconductor optical amplifiers: Model and noise characteristics

We developed an improved model in order to predict the RF behavior of the SOA valid for any experimental conditions. It takes into account the dynamic saturation of the SOA, which can be fully characterized by a simple measurement, and only relies on material fitting parameters, independent of the optical intensity and bias current. We used this new model to analyze and model the additive noise of the SOA in order to fully characterize the influence of the slow light effect on the microwave photonics link properties. To cite this article: P. Berger et al., C. R. Physique 10 (2009).     

多电极半导体光放大器对增益特性的改善

提出了采用多电极实现电流非均匀注入来改变半导体光放大器(SOA)内部的载流子分布,从而改变其增益饱和特性的一种新的方案.用SOA分段模型的计算结果表明,与单电极均匀注入电流的SOA 相比,在同样的总注入电流下,对一个两电极SOA采用前面小后面大的非均匀电流注入,可以提高饱和输出功率和饱和输入功率.而采用前面大后面小的电流注入方式,则将使SOA更容易发生饱和,不仅饱和输出功率与饱和输入功率减小,而且增益谱在饱和后的压缩程度加大,增益谱压缩的对称性提高.对多电极SOA,可以方便灵活地调节各节之间的长度比和注入电流比来满足不同的应用要求.     

增益半导体光放大器的特性

为满足半导体光放大器（SOA）在光纤到户FTTH系统接入网中的广泛应用,提出了基于光纤光栅外腔反馈型GC-SOA结构的全光增益机制,窄线宽激光光源经可变衰减器、隔离器和光纤光栅注入到SOA中,SOA的输出光经隔离器和光纤光栅送至光谱分析仪,通过光纤光栅反馈输入SOA形成钳制激光。对GC-SOA的阈值特性、增益特性及开关特性进行分析,结果表明:当注入电流小于GC-SOA的阈值电流时,增益随注入电流的增加而增加;当注入电流大于GC-SOA的阈值电流后,其增益不再随注入电流的变化而变化,实现了SOA的增益稳定,使SOA的饱和输出功率得到了提高。     

Analysis and minimization of cross phase modulation in semiconductor optical amplifiers for multichannel WDM optical communication systems

A theoretical model for crosstalk in multichannel wavelength division multiplexing communication systems due to cross phase saturation in semiconductor optical amplifier structure is developed. This theoretical model is used to analyze the impact of the cross phase noise on the performance of semiconductor optical amplifiers in saturation region for WDM communication system by using differential phase shift modulation format. It is shown that by increasing the carrier life time, width and thickness while reducing the confinement factor, differential gain and bias current in the SOA structure mitigates the cross talk due to cross phase saturation. The impact of penalty and cross phase noise imposed on multichannel WDM links have been investigated for different parameters of the SOA with the variation in transmission distance. With the slight increase in differential gain of 200.2 × 10⁻¹⁸ cm² and confinement factor 0.41, the maximum transmission distance observed is 5220 km with good quality and nil power penalty for 10 × 40 Gb/s soliton RZ-DPSK WDM signals for the first time.     

On the output characteristics of a semiconductor optical amplifier driven by an ultrafast optical time division multiplexing pulse train

A comprehensive theoretical analysis of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) that is subject to an ultrafast optical time division multiplexing pulse stream is presented with the help of a simple but efficient model developed for this purpose. The model combines the necessary set of mathematical equations with the appropriate simplifying assumptions to describe in the time domain gain saturation and recovery for the case of multiple incoming pulses. In this manner, analytical expressions can be obtained for the power and chirp profile of the amplified pulses, essentially extending the work that has been performed for a single pulse only. This allows to identify the critical operational parameters and to investigate and evaluate their effect on these two output characteristics. The derived simulation curves are thoroughly studied to specify the limitations imposed on the SOA small signal gain and carrier lifetime as well as on the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) and energy of the input pulses and, based on a series of logical arguments, to extract useful rules concerning their selection so as to achieve improved performance with respect to the practical applications of all-optical switching and pulse compression. The obtained results indicate that due to the continuous insertion of pulses, the requirements for the SOA small signal gain and the input pulse energy are stringent than those for the case of isolated pulse amplification. The combination of these two parameters determines also the regime in which the amplifier must be biased to operate in order to ensure distortionless pulse amplification and enhanced chirp for efficient pulse compression and it has been found that low saturation is necessary for the former case whilst heavy saturation for the latter. The scopes of the corresponding requirements for the carrier lifetime and the FWHM are also tight but to a less extent and can be simply satisfied with the available photonics technology. These results are in good agreement with the available experimental data essentially proving the validity and robustness of the model. The model can be thus applied to predict the behavior of more complex all-optical circuits of enhanced functionality in which the SOA is the basic functional device.     

Observation of twin-beam-type quantum correlation in optical fiber

We report generation of pulsed twin beams of light through optical parametric amplification in a fiber Sagnac loop. By pumping the Sagnac loop with picosecond pulses at a wavelength near the zero-dispersion wavelength of the fiber, we achieve phase-matched nondegenerate four-wave mixing with gain. For a gain of 2.2, the intensity noises of the amplified signal and the generated idler (conjugate) pulses are found to be correlated by 5.0 dB, and the subtracted noise drops below the shot-noise limit by 1.1 dB (2.6 dB when corrected for losses). We have investigated the gain dependence of the quantum-noise reduction as well as of the intensity noises of the amplified signal and idler pulses. As the gain increases, we observe the onset of excess noise on the idler pulses.     

Hybrid flat gain C-band optical amplifier with Zr-based erbium-doped fiber and semiconductor optical amplifier

An efficient gain-flattened C-band optical amplifier is demonstrated using a hybrid configuration with a Zirconia-based Erbium-doped fibre (Zr-EDF) and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The amplifier utilizes a two-stage structure with a midway isolator to improve flat gain characteristic and reduce noise figure. At input signal power of −30 dBm, a flat gain of 28 dB is obtained from wavelength region of 1530 to 1560 nm with gain variation of less than 4 dB. The noise figure is maintained below 11 dB at the flat-gain region. This amplifier has the potential to be used in the high channel count dense wavelength division multiplexing system due to its simplicity and compact design.     

半导体光放大器的非简并时延四波混合理论

用二能级宽带模型研究了半导体光放大器(SOA)中非简并相共轭四波混合信号强度随时间延迟的变化规律。结果表明,对这种情形的非简并四波混合共轭信号强度随时间延迟τ变化表明为载流子脉动,且脉动信号以退相速率衰减。鉴于目前用简并四波混合对半导体光放大器超快过程的测量需要大功率激光器作激发源、大光学实验平台和复杂的探测设备的情况下,提出了基于全光通信器件构成非简并四波混合观测半导体光放大器载流子脉动、退相时间新方法,这不仅便于选取抽运与探测光源波长(光通信窗口波长),而且可使测试设备微型化。     

Performance analysis of optical wavelength switching network using multiple output light source

In this paper a 32×32 optical wavelength switching network using the multi-channel and multi-wavelength spectrum-sliced light source is presented where the 2×2 optical-switching elements are utilized in dilated Benes and modified dilated Benes configurations, respectively. The system performances in bit-error rate, especially for the effects of intraband crosstalk, are analyzed in details for the two type networks. Through the simulation studies, the dilated Benes shows better performances than the modified dilated Benes configuration.     

半导体光放大器引起的串扰及其抑制技术

由于半导体光放大器(SOA)的增益饱和效应,在波分复用系统中.每个信道的增益受到复用的其它信道的影响.SOA引起的各信道之间的串扰严重限制了其应用.理论研究了SOA增益饱和效应引起的信道间串扰.数值模拟了多路信道复用时系统的误码率随复用信道数和光功率的变化情况,发现随着复用信道数的增加SOA增益饱和引起的信道间串扰越来越严重.对SOA中串扰的抑制方法进行了理论和实验研究.数值模拟发现连续光注入可以抑制输出功率的波动,从而减小误码率,当复用10个信道时,连续光注入可以使功率代价减小2 dB;实验验证了两信道的40 Gb/s系统中,注入连续光可以减少SOA引起的信道间串扰.     

Generation and transmission simulation of 60 G millimeter-wave by using semiconductor optical amplifiers for radio-over-fiber systems

A novel method of the millimeter-wave (MMW) generation is proposed for Radio-over-fiber systems with low phase noise by using semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). The simulation results show that the method is correct. When a pump light and a signal light are input into the SOA, the converted light induced by four-wave mixing (FWM) effect is generated. The optical MMW is generated between the signal light and converted light after filtering the pump light. The electrical MMW is obtained by beating the signal light and converted light via a photo-detector. The phase noise of the system is low because the phase difference between the signal light and converted light is stable for the FWM effect. The power of MMW is increased with the increase of the pump light power and the pump current of the SOA, is decreased with the increase of the polarization azimuths of the pump light.     

Comparative analysis of the effects of internal lasing oscillation and external light injection on semiconductor optical amplifier performance

One of the key differences of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) with internal lasing oscillation (ILO) from a SOA with external light injection (ELI) lies in a carrier-sharing mechanism. Since the internal lasing mode shares the same pool of carriers with the signals, the carriers (or photons) withdrawn from the circulating laser mode speed up the gain recovery. On the other hand, the external light injected into the SOA shortens the carrier recovery time through optical pumping without any carrier sharing involved. To find out a better scheme, we have made a comparative investigation on the effects of the ILO and ELI on the SOA performance. It turns out by way of simulation that the ELI scheme provides faster gain recovery, shorter carrier lifetime, and higher saturation power when the external injection power is higher than the internal lasing power. The performance enhancement is not so pronounced with the carrier-sharing mechanism, as the internal lasing mode itself gives rise to severe longitudinal spatial hole burning (LSHB). Nevertheless, the ILO scheme is preferable for linear-amplification applications. We also examine the use of the ELI for low-crosstalk optical amplifiers. It is found that the ELI scheme does not bring in a very strong resonance peak in the crosstalk, which appears in a SOA with ILO due to relaxation oscillations of the lasing mode. In comparison to the ILO in SOAs, the ELI into SOAs is likely to leave more optical gain for multi-channel amplification without any sacrifice on the crosstalk.     

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.     

Photonic generation of ultra-wideband doublet pulse using a semiconductor-optical-amplifier based polarization-diversified loop

We propose and demonstrate a novel scheme of ultra-wideband (UWB) doublet pulse generation using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) based polarization-diversified loop (PDL) without any assistant light. In our scheme, the incoming gaussian pulse is split into two parts by the PDL, and each of them is intensity modulated by the other due to cross-gain modulation (XGM) in the SOA. Then, both parts are recombined with incoherent summation to form a UWB doublet pulse. Bi-polar UWB doublet pulse generation is demonstrated using an inverted gaussian pulse injection. Moreover, pulse amplitude modulation of UWB doublet is also experimentally demonstrated. Our scheme shows some advantages, such as simple implementation without assistant light and single optical carrier operation with good fiber dispersion tolerance.     

Modeling of semiconductor optical amplifier RIN and phase noise for optical PSK systems

Phase modulation schemes are attracting much interest for use in ultra-fast optical communication systems because they are much less sensitive to fibre nonlinearities compared to conventional intensity modulation formats. Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) can be used to amplify and process phase modulated signals, but with a consequent addition of nonlinear phase noise (NLPN). Existing SOA NLPN models are simplistic. In this paper we show that a more accurate model can be used, which results in simple expressions for SOA nonlinear noise, in particular when used to amplify differential phase shift keyed modulated data. The model is used to calculate the optical signal to noise ratio introduced by a power booster SOA and the first inline amplifier of a 40 Gb/s NRZ-DQPSK single channel link.

     

All optical logic NAND gate based on two-photon absorption in semiconductor optical amplifiers

We propose a new scheme to realize all optical logic NAND operating at high speeds up to 250 Gb/s utilizing the ultrafast phase response during two-photon absorption (TPA) process in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA). NAND gate is important because other Boolean logic elements and circuits can be realized using NAND gates as basic building blocks. Rate equations for semiconductor optical amplifiers (for input data signals with high intensity) configured in the form of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer have been solved. The input intensities are high enough so that the two-photon induced phase change is larger than the regular gain induced phase change. The performance of this scheme is analyzed by calculating the quality factor of the resulting data streams. The results show that both AND and NAND operations at 250 Gb/s with good signal to noise ratio are feasible.     

The limits to incoherent optical power launching into lightguides

Large diameter optical fibres and fibre bundles are currently used in a growing number of fields for low and medium range transmission of light. This paper presents a compilation and an analysis of theoretical limits and possible practical techniques in the endeavour towards an optimum launching of light emitted by incoherent sources into large diameter (geometric optic) lightguides. The maximum attainable incoherent optical power flows in lightguide transmission are estimated for various high intensity light sources.