Abstract:The impact of ultra-fast carrier dynamics in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) on switches based on cross-gain and cross-phase modulation is analyzed theoretically and experimentally. We find that ultrafast effects lead to additional spectral broadening, which improves the optical signal-to-noise ratio for switches based on an SOA and an optical filter. For such switches, the influence of ultra-fast effects on the so-called nonlinear patterning effect is analyzed for three filter configurations: the asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer (AMZI), a band-pass filter (BPF), and a cascade of an AMZI and a BPF. We conclude that fast carrier dynamics dramatically reduces nonlinear patterning and that the successful high-speed (>100 Gb/s) demonstrations in the literature rely on these effects.
We identify a fundamental difference between the ASE noise filtering properties of different all-optical SOA-based switch configurations, and divide the switches into two classes. An in-band ASE suppression ratio quantifying the difference is derived theoretically and the impact of the ASE filtering on the optical spectrum is verified experimentally using a hybrid DISC setup. ASE power suppression of around 3 dB over the total signal bandwidth is demonstrated.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.