All-optical nonlinear switching in GaAs-AlGaAs microring resonators

Author

Van, V. ; Ibrahim, T.A. ; Ritter, K. ; Absil, P.P. ; Johnson, F.G. ; Grover, R. ; Goldhar, J. ; Ho, P.-T.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Eng., Maryland Univ., College Park, MD, USA

Volume

14

Issue

1

fYear

2002

Firstpage

74

Lastpage

76

Abstract

We demonstrate all-optical nonlinear switching in compact GaAs-AlGaAs microring resonators at the 1.55-μm wavelength. Switching is accomplished in the pump-and-probe configuration in which the pump-and-probe signals are tuned to different resonance wavelengths of the microring. Refractive index change in the microring due to free carriers generated by two photon absorption is used to switch the probe beam in and out of resonance. Measured transient responses of the pump and probe through the microring show good agreement with theoretical predictions based on nonlinear pump-probe interaction due to two photon absorption.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; micro-optics; micromechanical resonators; optical pumping; optical resonators; optical switches; refractive index; transient analysis; 1.55 micron; GaAs-AlGaAs microring resonators; all-optical nonlinear switching; all-optical switching; free carrier generation; nonlinear pump-probe interaction; photonic switching; probe beam resonance switching; pump and probe; pump-and-probe signal tuning; pump-and-probe switching configuration; refractive index change; resonance wavelengths; semiconductor microresonators; transient responses; two photon absorption; wavelength; Absorption; Laser excitation; Nonlinear optics; Optical pumping; Optical refraction; Optical resonators; Optical variables control; Power semiconductor switches; Probes; Resonance;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.974166

Filename

974166