Abstract
Using a perturbative approach, we perform a quantitative three-dimensional analysis of slow-light enhanced traveling wave amplification in an active semiconductor photonic crystal waveguide. The impact of slow-light propagation on the carrier-depletion-induced nonlinear gain saturation of the device is investigated. An effective rate-equation-based model is presented. It is shown that it well accounts for the three-dimensional simulation results. Simulations indicate that a slow-light-enhanced photonic crystal traveling-wave amplifier has a high small-signal modal gain and low saturation power.
Highlights
Photonic crystal (PhC) structures have been proposed as a waveguide infrastructure for highdensity photonic integrated circuits (PICs)
Simulations indicate that a slow-light-enhanced photonic crystal traveling-wave amplifier has a high small-signal modal gain and low saturation power
In this paper we present a theoretical analysis that quantifies the carrier depletion and continuous-wave (CW) light amplification in active PhC waveguides based on a perturbative approach
Summary
Photonic crystal (PhC) structures have been proposed as a waveguide infrastructure for highdensity photonic integrated circuits (PICs). We note that while the group index does show up in the standard formulation of the traveling wave equation for conventional SOAs, the replacement of that group index with a value enhanced by the slow-down factor due to PhC induced dispersion has to be justified. Such an approach ignores that the implicit quasi-plane wave approximation used in classical ridge waveguide amplifier and laser models is no longer appropriate for structured optical waveguides with strong dispersion. We suggest a modified rate equation model that well accounts for the carrier-depletion-induced modal gain saturation in a SL-enhanced active PhC waveguide
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