Short pulse transmission characteristics in multi-contact SOA

Author

Carney, Kevin ; Lennox, Robert ; Watts, Regan ; Philippe, Severine ; Bradley, Louise ; Landais, Pascal

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electron. Eng., Dublin City Univ., Dublin, Ireland

fYear

2012

fDate

2-5 July 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

An experimental characterisation of a multi-contact semiconductor optical amplifier using ultrashort optical pulses is presented. The SOA in question allows the injection of bias current through multiple independent electrical contacts, allowing the direct control of the carrier density. Picosecond-scale optical pulses are transmitted through the SOA. The non-linear effects on the pulse shape and spectrum after transmission are determined. It is found that the bias current distribution in the SOA is a significant factor in determining the extent of the non-linearities affecting the pulses. Additionally, amplification of negatively chirped pulses in the saturated SOA is found to reduce the spectral width of the pulses.

Keywords

carrier density; electrical contacts; high-speed optical techniques; optical pulse shaping; semiconductor optical amplifiers; bias current injection; carrier density; multicontact SOA; multiple independent electrical contacts; negatively chirped pulses; picosecond-scale optical pulses; semiconductor optical amplifier; short pulse transmission; ultrashort optical pulses; Charge carrier density; Optical fibers; Optical pulse generation; Optical pulses; Optical saturation; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Standards; Semiconductor optical amplifier; carrier density; non-linearities; ultrashort pulses;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), 2012 14th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Coventry

ISSN

2161-2056

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-2228-7

Electronic_ISBN

2161-2056

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICTON.2012.6254397

Filename

6254397