Experimental demonstration of all-optical regeneration using an MMI-SOA

Abstract

Abstract-A novel all-optical 2R regenerator based on a multimode interference coupler (MMI) semiconductor optical amplifier is presented. Static measurements of the transfer function reveal a digital transfer characteristic and a high increase in extinction ratio. The experiments are in good agreement with simulations, which have been done using a modified beam propagation method program. The device has a high tolerance to the MMI length. It has been fabricated in an all-active layout, avoiding the need for active/passive integration and is very compact.

The influence of lateral carrier diffusion and surface recombination on the behavior of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based MMIs

“…The advantage of the MMI as compared to the directional coupler, which can perform analog functions, lies in its robustness toward processing and in its less polarization dependent behavior. This device has also been fabricated in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based layer structure in several applications, e.g., high-power lasers [3], regenerators [4], [5], and wavelength converters [6]. However, some side effects, namely lateral carrier diffusion and surface recombination, which result from the active layout, should not be neglected in the design of SOA-based MMIs.…”

10 Gb/s-NRZ Optical 2R-Regeneration in Two-Section SOA-EA Chip

“…The simplest kind of regeneration includes reamplification and reshaping of the signal, also known as 2R regeneration. 2R-regeneration has been demonstrated using a Michelson interferometer at 40 Gb/s [1], using interferometers with semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) in the arms of the interferometers [2] and also using nonlinear effects like cross phase modulation (XPM) or cross gain modulation (XGM) to perform regeneration [3]. Previous solutions [1,3] do not realize a step-like transfer function.…”

Noise and Regeneration in Semiconductor Waveguides With Saturable Gain and Absorption

“…In a pass-through setup, i.e., without wavelength conversion, the input signal is regenerated (2R) by self-modulation. One example of wavelength conversion and regeneration in SOA-based devices can be found in [3] while pass-through regenerators are demonstrated in [2], [4], and [5].…”

“…Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based devices offer many optical signal processing functionalities. A promising principle of operation employs cross phase modulation in SOA-based interferometers [2]- [5]. In the case of regeneration, this can be accomplished both with and without wavelength conversion.…”