Abstract
Although patterning effects (PEs) are known to be a limiting factor of ultrafast photonic switches based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), a simple approach for their evaluation in numerical simulations and experiments is missing. In this work, we experimentally investigate and verify a theoretical prediction of the pseudo random binary sequence (PRBS) length needed to capture the full impact of PEs. A wide range of SOAs and operation conditions are investigated. The very simple form of the PRBS length condition highlights the role of two parameters, i.e. the recovery time of the SOAs as well as the operation bit rate. Furthermore, a simple and effective method for probing the maximum PEs is demonstrated, which may relieve the computational effort or the experimental difficulties associated with the use of long PRBSs for the simulation or characterization of SOA-based switches. Good agrement with conventional PRBS characterization is obtained. The method is suitable for quick and systematic estimation and optimization of the switching performance.
Highlights
High-speed photonic switching is a key enabling technology for all-optical signal processing, which avoids optical-electrical-optical (O-E-O) conversion and potentially allows superior operation speed and/or reduction of energy consumption compared to electronic switching
Abstract: patterning effects (PEs) are known to be a limiting factor of ultrafast photonic switches based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), a simple approach for their evaluation in numerical simulations and experiments is missing
We experimentally investigate and verify a theoretical prediction of the pseudo random binary sequence (PRBS) length needed to capture the full impact of PEs
Summary
High-speed photonic switching is a key enabling technology for all-optical signal processing, which avoids optical-electrical-optical (O-E-O) conversion and potentially allows superior operation speed and/or reduction of energy consumption compared to electronic switching. In spite of the slow carrier dynamics of SOAs, typically occuring on the time-scale of tens to hundreds of picoseconds, impressive demonstrations at 320 Gbit/s and 640 Gbit/s have been reported for all-optical wavelength conversion [1] and demultiplexing [2] Operation at such high speeds is made possible by the fact that the linear part of the patterning effects (PEs) caused by the slow carrier recovery process can be effectively suppressed by properly filtering the output spectrum [3, 4]. In order to properly characterize SOA-based switches with respect to the PEs, it is necessary to launch PRBSs with sufficiently large n so that the full extent of the slow SOA dynamics can be probed This is challenging in numerical simulations, and difficult in high-speed experiments where high bit rate test signals are generated using passive optical time multiplexing of lower bit-rate tributaries. Good agreement is obtained between the theoretical and experimental results, confirming the generality and power of the proposed methods
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