Spectral broadening of stochastic light intensity-smoothed by a saturated semiconductor optical amplifier

Author

Munroe, Michael J. ; Cooper, John ; Raymer, Michael G.

Author_Institution

Div. of Optoelectron., Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technol., Boulder, CO, USA

Volume

34

Issue

3

fYear

1998

fDate

3/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

548

Lastpage

551

Abstract

We present calculations of the intensity smoothing of stochastic light by a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). We predict spectral changes of the light that are due to amplitude-to-phase coupling in the gain medium. The intensity smoothing of noisy optical signals with an SOA carries a penalty of spectral broadening (increased phase noise) that increases with increasing alpha parameter (linewidth enhancement factor). The spectral broadening also increases with increasing strength of the intensity fluctuations being smoothed

Keywords

fluctuations; laser noise; laser theory; optical saturation; semiconductor device models; semiconductor lasers; spectral line broadening; stochastic systems; amplitude-to-phase coupling; gain medium; increased phase noise; increasing alpha parameter; intensity fluctuations; intensity smoothing; linewidth enhancement factor; noisy optical signals; saturated semiconductor optical amplifier; spectral broadening; spectral changes; stochastic light intensity-smoothed; Fluctuations; Optical coupling; Optical noise; Phase noise; Semiconductor device noise; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Smoothing methods; Stimulated emission; Stochastic processes; Stochastic resonance;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.661465

Filename

661465