Semiconductor optical amplifier pattern effect suppression with passive single microring resonator-based notch filter

Abstract

We propose to employ a passive single microring resonator (MRR) to suppress the pattern effect in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). We specify the necessary conditions that must hold in order for the MRR to act as notch filter and compensate for the uneven spectral broadening of the amplified data pulses. This procedure allows us to find the permissible range of values of the MRR radius and suitably select this parameter so that the defined design criteria are satisfied and the employed figure-of-merits are acceptable. If designed and constructed as suggested, which is feasible with state-of-the-art technology, the MRR-based notch filter enables to significantly improve the pattern-dependent SOA performance and the quality characteristics of the amplified signal.