Low-noise and very high-efficiency four-wave mixing in 1.5-mm-long semiconductor optical amplifiers

Author

Girardin, F. ; Eckner, J. ; Guekos, G. ; Dall´Ara, R. ; Mecozzi, A. ; Ottavi, A.D. ; Martelli, F. ; Scotti, S. ; Spano, P.

Author_Institution

Swiss Federal Inst. of Technol., Zurich, Switzerland

Volume

9

Issue

6

fYear

1997

fDate

6/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

746

Lastpage

748

Abstract

Very high four-wave mixing (FWM) efficiency and signal-to-background ratio (SBR) are obtained in a 1.5-mm-long bulk semiconductor optical amplifier. The FWM efficiency is measured to be 5 dB at 1-THz pump-signal detuning, which is the highest value reported to date. With a pump power of -1.4 dBm, the SBR is in excess of 20 dB in a bandwidth of 12.5 GHz, for a pump-signal detuning range as large as 2 THz and the efficiency is under the same conditions larger than -1 dB for a pump-signal detuning range as large as 1 THz. These results make FWM an attractive method for practical wavelength conversion. Some low-detuning measurements show a maximum efficiency around 8 GHz.

Keywords

laser noise; laser tuning; multiwave mixing; optical frequency conversion; optical pumping; optical transmitters; semiconductor device noise; semiconductor lasers; wavelength division multiplexing; 1.5 mm; 12.5 GHz; 8 GHz; FWM efficiency; THz pump-signal detuning; bulk semiconductor optical amplifier; low-detuning measurements; low-noise; maximum efficiency; optical frequency conversion; pump power; pump-signal detuning range; semiconductor optical amplifiers; signal-to-background ratio; very high-efficiency four-wave mixing; wavelength conversion; Degradation; Four-wave mixing; Optical amplifiers; Optical mixing; Optical modulation; Optical noise; Optical waveguides; Optical wavelength conversion; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Wavelength measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.584977

Filename

584977