Characterization of a Monolithic Concatenated SOA/SA Waveguide Device for Picosecond Pulse Amplification and Shaping

Author

Heck, Martijn J R ; Bente, Erwin A J M ; Barbarin, Yohan ; Fryda, Antigoni ; Jung, Hyun-Do ; Oei, Yok-Siang ; Nötzel, Richard ; Lenstra, Daan ; Smit, Meint K.

Author_Institution

Eindhoven Univ. of Technol., Eindhoven

Volume

44

Issue

4

fYear

2008

fDate

4/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

360

Lastpage

369

Abstract

In this paper, a monolithic waveguide device, named IRIS, is presented. The device consists of an array of concatenated semiconductor optical amplifiers and saturable absorbers. We have fabricated the devices in InP-InGaAsP bulk gain material and we have experimentally investigated picosecond pulse transmission through these devices. Operated as an optical amplifier the IRIS devices show a decreased temporal pulse broadening and decreased amplified spontaneous emission noise generation as compared to a semiconductor optical amplifier of equivalent length. Used as a nonlinear element to increase the optical bandwidth of a picosecond pulse train, the spectra obtained with IRIS devices show an increased broadening and smoothness as compared to a semiconductor optical amplifier. We have set up a theoretical model to describe spectral and temporal pulse shaping by the IRIS device. Agreement between the simulations and the experiments is obtained.

Keywords

high-speed optical techniques; integrated optoelectronics; optical pulse shaping; optical saturable absorption; optical waveguides; semiconductor optical amplifiers; superradiance; IRIS devices; InP-InGaAsP; amplified spontaneous emission noise generation; bulk gain material; concatenated semiconductor optical amplifiers; integrated optoelectronics; monolithic concatenated SOA/SA waveguide device; nonlinear element; optical bandwidth; picosecond pulse amplification; picosecond pulse shaping; picosecond pulse transmission; saturable absorbers; spectral pulse shaping; temporal pulse broadening; temporal pulse shaping; ultrafast optics; Concatenated codes; Iris; Optical arrays; Optical noise; Optical pulse shaping; Optical waveguides; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse shaping methods; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Semiconductor waveguides; Integrated optoelectronics; optical pulse amplifiers; optical pulse shaping; semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs); ultrafast optics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2007.914764

Filename

4456794