Monolithically Integrated InP Bistable Photonic Waveguide Memory

Abstract

In this article, we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, an all-optical bistable monolithically integrated photonic waveguide memory of distinctive simplicity, relying on two travelling waveguide Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers with Cross Gain modulation (SOA-XGM) phenomena. Experimental proof-of-principle memory operation and wavelength switching operation are demonstrated at 5Gb/s, featuring an Extinction Ratio of 6 dB and a 4.6 dB BER penalty, in the case of the memory operation, as well as a power penalty of 3.5 dB at 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−9</sup> BER value, in the case of the wavelength switching. Being entirely designed and fabricated using standard library-based components, the proposed photonic memory fits within a 3.5 mm waveguide configuration of a generic monolithic InP platform, while its overall footprint is <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3.5\times 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> demonstrating a footprint reduction of 40% compared to previous hybrid SOA-MZI SR-FF architectures, holding the credentials for a fast photonic memory unit.