Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA)–Based Amplification of Intensity-Modulated Optical Pulses — Deterministic Timing Jitter and Pulse Peak Power Equalization Analysis

Abstract

During the last few years, large-scale efforts towards realizing high-photonic integration densities have put SO"s in the spotlight once again. Hence, the need to develop a complete framework for SO"-induced signal distortion to accurately evaluate a system's performance has now become evident. To cope with this demand, we present a detailed theoretical and experimental investigation of the deterministic timing jitter and the pulse peak power equalization of SO"-amplified intensity-modulated optical pulses. The deterministic timing jitter model relies on the pulse mean arrival time estimation and its analytic formula reveals an approximate linear relationship between the deterministic timing jitter and the logarithmic values of intensity modulation when the SO" gain recovery time is faster than the pulse period. The theoretical analysis also arrives at an analytic expression for the intensity modulation reduction IMR , which clearly elucidates the pulse peak power equalization mechanism of SO". The IMR analysis shows that the output intensity modulation depth is linearly related to the respective input modulation depth of the optical pulses when the gain recovery time is faster than the pulse period. This novel theoretical platform provides a qualitative and quantitative insight into the SO" performance in case of intensity-modulated optical pulses.

III–V-on-Si Photonic Crystal Nanocavity Laser Technology for Optical Static Random Access Memories

“…The reduced performance of the SR-FF in terms of ER stems from the degraded SOA performance at 10Gb/s. In addition, employing the SOA to produce the required threelevel input signal at 10Gb/s leads to the appearance of severe pattern effects [43] in the three-level SR-FF input signal that are imprinted -among other-as jitter variation at the output signal of the SR-FF. As a result the input signal injected to the PhC nanocavity laser at 10Gb/s is of poorer quality compared to the input signals at 5Gb/s, hindering in this way the error-free performance of the SR-FF.…”