Tunable wavelength filters based on nonlinear optical interactions in semiconductor amplifiers

Author

Dubovitsky, Serge ; Steier, William H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Volume

14

Issue

6

fYear

1996

fDate

6/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1020

Lastpage

1026

Abstract

A novel class of narrow-band tunable wavelength filters is proposed and evaluated. Wavelength selectivity of the proposed filters Is derived from the finite time response of an optical nonlinearity. The nonlinearity is gain saturation in semiconductor optical amplifier structures. The filters are shown to have very narrow passbands tunable over the entire semiconductor gain bandwidth. The key to filter implementation is a device configuration in which the wave-mixing products can be isolated from the amplified inputs. Three integrated optics compatible configurations are considered and shown to have high filter throughputs 34 to 180% and subangstrom bandwidths

Keywords

integrated optics; multiwave mixing; optical communication equipment; optical saturation; optical waveguide theory; semiconductor lasers; tuning; wavelength division multiplexing; amplified inputs; device configuration; entire semiconductor gain bandwidth; filter implementation; finite time response; gain saturation; high filter throughputs; integrated optics compatible configurations; multiwave-mixing products; narrow-band tunable wavelength filters; nonlinear optical interactions; optical nonlinearity; semiconductor amplifiers; semiconductor optical amplifier structures; subangstrom bandwidths; tunable wavelength filters; very narrow passbands; wavelength selectivity; Band pass filters; Bandwidth; Narrowband; Nonlinear optical devices; Nonlinear optics; Optical filters; Optical saturation; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Stimulated emission; Time factors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.511602

Filename

511602