Thermal and Optical Characterization of Photonic Integrated Circuits by Thermoreflectance Microscopy

We report high resolution, non-invasive, thermal and optical characterization of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and SOA-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) using thermoreflectance microscopy. Chip-scale temperature imaging of SOAs and PICs, along with an energy balance model, are used to calculate the optical power distribution within and between SOAs to determine optical gain, fiber coupling loss, and passive component loss under normal device operating conditions. This technique is demonstrated to map optical power in SOA-based Mach–Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) PICs, with close agreement with photocurrent and fiber-coupled measurements. The use of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) for fiber-free characterization of the PICs is also shown, enabling non-invasive, wafer-scale testing prior to packaging.      

Polarisation insensitive wavelength conversion of 10 Gbit/s signalswith SOAs in a Michelson interferometer

Polarisation insensitive wavelength conversion is demonstrated with a new configuration in which semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are placed in a Michelson interferometer. Wavelength conversion of 10 Gbit/s signals is achieved with an improvement of the on/off ratio from 10 to 13 dB, although the conversion is from shorter to longer wavelengths     

Self-switching in Mach-Zehnder interferometers with SOA phase shifters

A self-switching mechanism in Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) is described. The input light signal is distributed unequally over the interferometer arms using an multimode interference (MMI) coupler. In the arms, semiconductor optical amplifiers are placed as nonlinear phase shifters. Unequal intensities yield a nonlinear phase shift. The signals from the two arms are then recombined in an output MMI coupler. If an obtained nonlinear phase shift in the arms can compensate the coupler-induced phase difference between the arms, the signals are in phase at the output port. Choosing an appropriate output coupler, 2/spl times/1 and 2/spl times/2 devices can be obtained. The 2/spl times/2 and 2/spl times/1 MZIs can be used as pattern effect compensators and 2R-regenerators or low-loss combiner circuits, respectively. An active-passive integration technique is applied in order to realize the interferometric structures. Fabrication, simulation, and characterization of these devices are presented in this letter.     

Comparison of interferometric all-optical switches fordemultiplexing applications in high-speed OTDM systems

We have investigated three interferometric all-optical switches based on cross-phase modulation (XPM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), the semiconductor laser amplifier in a loop mirror (SLALOM) switch, the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) switch, and the ultrafast nonlinear interferometer (UNI) switch. Switching windows with different widths are measured under similar conditions for all three switching configurations. We introduce the integrated contrast ratio (ICR) as a measure to evaluate the performance of a switch from switching windows. Using the ICR, the switches are compared and their application is discussed as demultiplexer in optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) systems for data rates of 40, 80, and 160 Gb/s     

All-optical switching at multi-100-Gb/s data rates with Mach-Zehnder interferometer switches

We present experimental and theoretical results on ultrafast nonlinear dynamics in InGaAsP semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). Carrier heating, spectral hole burning, and two-photon absorption are analyzed by heterodyne pump-probe experiments which deliver basic model parameters like gain-phase coupling parameters of the material. The impact on the device performance induced by these physical effects is verified by cross-gain/cross-phase experiments on InGaAsP-based SOAs and Mach-Zehnder interferometer switches. In the co-propagation arrangement, the switching window with maximum transmission is shown to be 1.5 ps which translates into demultiplexing capabilities beyond 600 Gb/s. Calculations based on a distributed rate equation model show that, for high-speed applications, the switching window can be limited by pulse saturation and by subpicosecond nonlinear effects.     

Transmission performance analysis of 8/spl times/10 Gb/s WDM signals using cascaded SOAs due to signal wavelength displacement

We have analyzed the transmission performance of 8/spl times/10 Gb/s wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) signals due to crosstalk in cascaded conventional semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). Using two different methods, the crosstalk over the whole gain bandwidth in SOAs is calculated to be 2-5 dB lower for the positive detuning. Then, transmission performance of 8/spl times/10 Gb/s WDM signals up to 6/spl times/40 km span in terms of receiver sensitivity is estimated over various transmission distances using cascaded SOAs for the positive signal wavelength displacement of 30, 40, and 50 nm. Especially for 50 nm detuning, transmission performances with and without using a reservoir channel are similar to each other. Our results suggest that SOAs can be used as an optical amplifier for displacement larger than 50 nm without using the reservoir channel.     

Analysis of the Dynamic Responses of SOA Wavelength Converters Using Linear Frequency Resolved Gating Technique

This letter demonstrates the applicability of the linear frequency resolved optical gating technique for the complete characterization of the fast dynamic response of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) when operating as wavelength converters. We have investigated both the cross-gain modulation and cross-phase modulation responses to short pump signals, using an SOA Mach-Zehnder interferometer in a pump-probe configuration. A blind deconvolution algorithm has then been used to retrieve the electric field profiles of both the signal and the gate function.     

Design of a 1 × 2 novel optical switch based on polarization converters and splitters

In this paper, a 1?×?2 optical switch based on two TE/TM polarization converters, one 1?×?2-polarization beam splitter and a hybrid 2?×?2-polarization beam splitter/combiner is designed and discussed. The novelty of this work resides in the design of a 2?×?2-hybrid polarization beam combiner/splitter, operating as a 2?×?2 polarization optical switch through the combining and the splitting of polarized signals issued from two TE/TM polarization controllers. The novel hybrid splitter/combiner can route an optical signal either to a bar or a cross port with an extinction ratio higher than 90 dB, thanks to the feature of polarization splitting used in this device to suppress undesired polarization states and minimize the polarization-dependent loss. We have used polarization beam converters to switch between two orthogonal modes in order to facilitate the routing of these signals through the 2?×?2-hybrid polarization splitter/combiner. We changed the polarization states of signals, in our simulation via OptiSystem, through polarization controllers, by modifying only their phase shifts between 0 rad and π rad. The proposed 1?×?2 optical switch presents an average insertion loss of 3.5 dB.

     

Design considerations of all-optical A/D conversion: nonlinear fiber-optic Sagnac-loop interferometer-based optical quantizing and coding

The authors describe in detail the design considerations of our previously proposed novel optical quantizing and coding method for all-optical analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion using nonlinear optical switches based on the Sagnac interferometer. The multiperiod transfer function, which is the key to quantizing and coding, is achieved through a careful design of the Sagnac interferometer. In the experiments, the intensity of the pulse train input to our A/D converter is manually changed, and the corresponding digital signals are successfully mapped generated. Although the input-pulse trains are not the sampling of real analog signal, the principle of our proposed 3-bit A/D conversion at a 10 gigasample per second (Gsps) rate is demonstrated. The proposed optical quantizing and coding, combined with existing optical sampling techniques, will enable ultrafast photonic A/D conversion without electronics. The potential in the frequency regime of over a few hundred gigasamples per second was investigated by using an optical switch that utilizes the optical Kerr effect for fast operation. It was found out that the wavelength allocations and temporal widths of control and probe pulses have to be optimized with respect to the group-velocity dispersion of highly nonlinear fiber.     

Low-Complexity Compensation of SOA Nonlinearity for Single-Channel PSK and OOK

Carrier density fluctuations in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) impose penalties on phase-shift keying (PSK) signals due to nonlinear phase noise (NLPN), and on-off keying (OOK) signals due to self-gain modulation. In this paper, we propose a simple scheme to equalize the impairments induced by SOA nonlinearities, derived from the small signal analysis of carrier density fluctuations. We demonstrate via simulation almost complete cancelation of the NLPN added by a saturated SOA on a differential PSK signal. We demonstrate via both simulations and experiment the effectiveness of the method for mitigation of nonlinear distortions imposed by SOAs on an OOK signal.      

Reconfigurable All-Optical Logic Gates for Multi-Input Differential Phase-Shift Keying Signals: Design and Experiments

Differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) signals are promising candidate for the long-haul transmission systems. However, the development of the all-optical signal processing techniques for the DPSK signals is still in its infancy, especially the all-optical logic operations. In this work, a general scheme for reconfigurable logic gates for multi-input DPSK signals with integration possibility is proposed. Benefiting from the optical logic minterms developed by two kinds of optical devices, i.e., optical delay interferometers and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), target logic functions can be realized by combining specific minterms together. The scheme is reconfigured by changing the phase control of the delay interferometers or the input wavelengths. The latter approach was adopted in the experimental trials. Although the outputs of the scheme are on-off keying (OOK) signals, the data format is compatible with all-optical decision circuits where OOK format is preferred. Two- and three-input experiments are carried out at 20 Gbit/s with nonreturn-to-zero DPSK signals. Various logic operations are demonstrated, including full sets of two- and three-input minterms, AND, NOR, XOR, and XNOR logic operations where the AND and NOR logic are derived simultaneously and the XOR and XNOR logic are convertible. The optical SNR as well as the Q-factor of the two- and three-input results are measured and compared. It shows that the input powers to the SOAs are critical in achieving good extinction ratio and the Q-factor of logic results degrades when several minterms are combined. The recovery time of the SOAs need to be optimized as well. Finally, the scaling issues of the scheme are discussed.     

Transmission performance of 10-Gb/s 1550-nm transmitters using semiconductor optical amplifiers as booster amplifiers

We have demonstrated the transmission performance of 10-Gb/s transmitters based on LiNbO/sub 3/ modulator using semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) as booster amplifiers. Utilizing the negative chirp converted in SOAs and self-phase modulation induced by high optical power, we can successfully transmit 10-Gb/s optical signals over 80 km through the standard single-mode fiber with the transmitter using SOAs as booster amplifiers. SOAs can be used for booster amplifiers with a careful adjustment of the operating conditions. In order to further understand an SOA's characteristics as a booster amplifier, we model SOAs and other subsystems to verify the experimental results. Based on the good agreement between the experimental and simulation results, we can find the appropriate parameters of input signals for SOAs, such as extinction ratio, rising/falling time, and chirp parameter to maximize output dynamic range and available maximum output power (P/sub o,max/).     

Analysis of optical phase-conjugate characteristics of picosecondfour-wave mixing signals in semiconductor optical amplifiers

We have analyzed for the first time the optical phase-conjugate characteristics of picosecond four-wave mixing (FWM) signals in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) using the finite-difference beam propagation method (FD-BPM). We show that the optical phase-conjugate characteristics of the FWM signals are strongly dependent on input pump pulsewidths. As a typical example, we have demonstrated that SOAs act as an ideal phase-conjugator, within the confines of reversing the chirp of optical pulses, for a 10-ps input pump pulse and a ~2.2-ps linearly chirped input probe pulse. When the pulsewidth of pump pulse becomes short, the minimum compressed pulsewidth is obtained by using a fiber shorter in length than the input fiber, but having the same group velocity dispersion as the input fiber. For a much shorter pump pulse such as 1 ps, the short FWM signal can be obtained via the gating characteristics of the FWM. However, only a part of the phase information is copied to the FWM signal due to such gating characteristics. The phase information is also degraded due to the fast nonlinear effect in the SOA. Thus, the pulsewidth is not compressed by propagation through a dispersive medium     

Quantum-Dot Semiconductor Mode-Locked Lasers and Amplifiers at 40 GHz

Mode-locked lasers (MLLs) and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) based on quantum-dot (QD) gain material will impact the development of next-generation networks, such as the 100 Gb/s Ethernet. MLLs presently consisting of a monolithic two-section device already generate picosecond pulse trains at 40 GHz. Temperature dependence of pulsewidth for p-doped devices, a detailed chirp analysis that is a prerequisite for optical time-division multiplexing applications, and data transmission experiments are presented in this paper. QD SOAs show superior performance for linear amplification as well as nonlinear signal processing. Using cross-gain modulation for wavelength conversion, QD SOAs are shown to have a small signal bandwidth beyond 40 GHz under high-bias current injection. This makes QD SOAs much superior to conventional SOAs.      

Ultrafast all-optical AND gate based on cascaded SOAs with assistance of optical filters

An ultrafast all-optical logic AND gate is realised based on two cascaded Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) each followed by an optical filter to accelerate the effective recovery process of the SOAs. 40 Gbit/s operation with return-to-zero signals has been achieved with SOAs, the 90-10% recovery time of which is much greater than the single bit period. Clear open eyes with quality factor of 6.3 are observed. The proposed AND gate has a potentially loose requirement on input pulse width     

A Fiber-Based All-Optical 3R Regenerator for DPSK Signals

Analysis of an all-optical 3R regenerator for differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) signals is presented. Incoming DPSK signals impaired by noise are first demodulated to on-off keying (OOK) signals by a delay interferometer. The amplitude of the OOK signals is then stabilized by a fiber-based all-optical 2R regenerator. In a subsequent nonlinear fiber, locally generated optical clock pulses are phase-modulated by the stabilized OOK pulses and are output as regenerated signals. It is shown that significant phase-noise suppression is achieved by strong amplitude regeneration     

基于级联半导体光放大器实现全光逻辑与门的改进方案

基于级联半导体光放大器(SOA)实现全光逻辑与门的方案中,第一级输出信号质量直接影响逻辑与运算结果.采用载流子恢复较慢的体材料半导体光放大器用于第一级转换,在10 Gbit/s以上得不到理想的转换结果,限制了该方案实现逻辑与门的速率.利用光纤延时干涉仪(DI)和第一级半导体光放大器级联可以改善第一级输出信号质量,从而有效提高第二级全光逻辑与门的实现速率.阐述了改进方案中延时干涉仪的作用,并进行了数值模拟.根据实验结果,采用载流子恢复较慢的半导体光放大器级联延时干涉仪能够实现高速归零(RZ)信号和非归零(NRZ)信号的反码,从而得到较高速率的全光逻辑与门.实验实现了20 Gbit/s的伪随机归零和非归零信号的全光逻辑与门,对40 Gbit/s的结果进行了分析和讨论.     

Linear and nonlinear crosstalk suppression for DWDM RZ-DPSK transmitter using a saturated SOA as power booster amplifier

Saturated semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) can be used as booster amplifiers for dense wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) return-to-zero differential phase-shift keying (RZ-DPSK) transmitters. By introducing time interleaving (TI), both linear crosstalk induced by WDM components and nonlinear crosstalk induced by SOA nonlinearities are suppressed. Receiver sensitivities for four-channel DWDM RZ-DPSK signals with 100- and 50-GHz channel spacing were improved 2.2 and 4.2 dB, respectively, by applying proper TI between adjacent channels. A 1-dB gain enhancement was also achieved.     

Improving the all-optical response of SOAs using a modulated holding signal

A method for increasing the all-optical modulation bandwidth of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) by use of a cross-gain-modulated (XGM) holding signal is suggested and analyzed. The bandwidth improvement is numerically demonstrated by studying wavelength conversion in an SOA-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) at 160 and 40 Gb/s. The new scheme is predicted to improve the extinction ratio and the minimum mark output power, as well as to reduce the amplitude jitter of the wavelength converted signal.     

一种异频微波信号合路器方案设计

基于频带分割方法,利用带通（或带阻）滤波器的带外抑制性和三端口环行器的定向传输性,提出了一种新的异频合路器设计方案。该合路器原理通用性强,软件仿真和实物测试结果表明：在排除各器件自身损耗和滤波器带外抑制度小于-30dBc条件下,该合路器能够不失真地同时传输多频具有不同带宽的信号,具有应用于有源相控阵T／R组件中实现同时多功能的潜力。