Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Research Articles

High-speed and high-precision measurement of biaxial in-plane displacements: tens of nanometers principle error suppression in microprobe sensors

When the microprobe sensor is faced with the demand of high-speed biaxial displacement measurement, due to the characteristics of phase generated carrier (PGC) technology, accompanying optical intensity modulation (AOIM) and unfavorable phase modulation depth (PMD) will bring about the tens of nanometer cyclic nonlinear errors, further hindering high-speed and high-precision measurement. Herein, a light source intensity stabilization system based on semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) feedback control is achieved to eliminate the error caused by AOIM in the presence of high-frequency and large-amplitude laser modulation. Based on this, the reasons for large nonlinear errors in biaxial measurements and the inability to ensure the stability of the accuracy of multiple measurement axes are methodically examined, and an effective nonlinear error elimination methodology based on the normalized amplitude correction of active temperature scanning is proposed. The continuity and linearity of the temperature scanning are also discussed. The performed experiments show that the above approach is capable of reducing the displacement demodulation error from the nanometer scale to the sub-nanometer scale. Further, the nonlinear error is reduced to within 0.1 nm for both measurement axes and the performance becomes consistent. The dual-axis measurement resolution of the microprobe sensor reaches 0.4 nm and the measurement speed is better than 1.2 m/s with the standard deviation of lower than 0.5 nm.

High Efficiency O‐band Preamplified Receiver Integrated with Semiconductor Optical Amplifier and Uni‐travelling Carrier Photodiode for Passive Optical Network

With the continuous increase in data traffic and enormous consumption of data in terms of video on demand services and cloud computing, there is an increasing demand for high speed and high sensitivity short reach receivers for passive optical networks (PON) access network which are point to multi‐point networks. Avalanche photodiodes (APD) are the standard receivers in PON networks due to their high sensitivity and low cost. However, it is currently not clear if they can provide high bandwidth above 40 GHz with good performance (gain, noise, etc.). Furthermore, standard PIN photodiodes do not provide sufficient sensitivity for PON networks. Therefore, in this article a SOA‐UTC receiver is proposed, which is a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprising a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) for optical preamplification and a high‐speed uni‐travelling‐carrier (UTC) photodiode for opto‐electronic conversion. A very high responsivity of 140 A W−1 is demonstrated, with a polarization dependent loss (PDL) around 1 dB and a 3 dB bandwidth of 48 GHz, which is very promising for future PON network with 50 Gbit s−1 capacity and above.

Architecture for low-cost and highly flexible metro-access networks using SOA-based OADM nodes and digital subcarrier multiplexing with power loading.

Metro-access networks exploiting wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) to cope with the ever-growing bandwidth demands are sensitive to cost and need to be fast-configurable to meet the requirements of many new network services. Optical add-drop multiplexers (OADMs) are a key component in enabling fast dynamic wavelength allocation and optimization. In this Letter, we propose and demonstrate, to our knowledge, a novel architecture for high-performance metro-access networks that utilizes semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based OADM nodes, digital subcarrier multiplexing (DSCM), low-cost direct detection receivers, and power loading techniques, which makes the designed metro-access network cost-effective, fast reconfigurable, and flexible for bandwidth allocation on demand. Through a proof-of-concept experiment, we have successfully demonstrated a prototype horseshoe optical network consisting of up to four SOA-based OADM nodes at 40 Gb/s per wavelength channel by leveraging the proposed scheme. The flexible bandwidth allocation and dynamic add and drop operations have also been achieved in an emulated WDM optical network. All results indicate the great scalability and flexibility of the proposed architecture.

A novel bidirectionally operated chirped quantum-dot based semiconductor optical amplifier using a dual ground state spectrum

Bi-directionally operated amplifiers enabling efficient utilization of transmission wavelengths are promising candidates in densely integrated photonic circuits for future cost-effective, power-efficient optical networks. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, a broadband semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) based on a novel chirped multilayered quantum dot (QD) structure, which is suitable for bi-directional amplification via the dual ground state (GS) emission spectrum. The fabricated QD SOA has achieved a maximum 3-dB gain bandwidth of 50 nm while retaining on-chip gain above 20 dB at both GS wavelengths. Under an optimum pumping current of 280 mA, the bi-directionally operated QD SOA has shown around 10 dB receiver sensitivity improvement in ultra-high-speed 100 Gbaud non-return-to-zero and 53.125 Gbaud four-level pulse amplitude modulation data transmission systems.

Optimization of the coupling efficiency under self-injection locking in a narrow linewidth hybrid wavelength tunable laser diode

In this study, a fiber Fabry–Perot (FFP) interferometer was connected to a hybrid wavelength-tunable laser diode consisting of a semiconductor optical amplifier chip and Si photonics chip, and spectral linewidth narrowing was achieved using the self-injection locking effect. The hybrid wavelength-tunable laser was equipped with a variable-reflectivity mirror, which allowed the optimization of κ, the coupling efficiency between the laser cavity and FFP interferometer. By optimizing κ, self-injection locking stabilized, and the linewidth was controlled between 4 and 300 kHz. This laser can be used to evaluate the linewidth required for communication systems such as digital coherent communication and the accuracy required for distance measurement.

Airy pulse dynamics in semiconductor optical amplifier with dispersive gain

We analytically as well as numerically study the Airy pulse dynamics in semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) with dispersive gain. The frequency dependent gain of the SOA not only modifies the temporal shape of the Airy pulse but also alters the peak power of the Airy pulse. The study finds that the trajectory of the Airy pulse can be manipulated by the gain induced dispersion and the linewidth enhancement factor. Moreover, the gain dispersion introduces upchirp during the propagation that suppresses the Airy pulse acceleration in anomalous group velocity dispersion while the acceleration is pronounced when the dispersion is normal.

High efficient net gain and low noise figure based vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers for wavelength division multiplexing applications

Abstract This paper has demonstrated the high efficient net gain and low noise figure based vertical cavity semiconductor light amplifiers for wavelength division multiplexing applications. Previous study on the chip reflective gain variations versus SOA current under temperature effects is clarified. We have transferred light semiconductor amplifiers for wavelength multiplexing schemes applications. Amplifier output power is demonstrated with bias current and amplifier active layer region length variations based input signal power of 3, 6.5, 10 dBm, 1550 nm wavelength and optimum amplifier confinement factor of 0.45. The amplifier output noise variations are clarified against the bias current and amplifier active layer region width variations based input signal power of 3, 6.5, 10 dBm, 1550 nm wavelength and optimum amplifier confinement factor of 0.45. The output OSNR variations are studied clearly and deeply against the bias current and amplifier active layer region length variations based input signal power of 3, 6.5, 10 dBm, 1550 nm wavelength and optimum amplifier confinement factor of 0.45. The signal loss is demonstrated versus both active layer width/length and temperature based optimum 30 % gallium core dopant ratio and 28 % arsenide cladding dopant ratio at optimum input signal power of 10 dBm, 1550 nm wavelength and optimum amplifier confinement factor of 0.45. SOA amplifier output power can be enhance with the management of both bias current and input signal power and the reduction of active amplifier length. The amplifier output noise can be enhance with the management of both bias current and input signal power and the reduction of active amplifier width. Output OSNR system can be improved with the management of both bias current and input signal power and the reduction of active amplifier length. The SOA amplifier gain can be improved with the management of both bias current and input signal power and the reduction of active amplifier length. The SOA amplifier noise figure can be improved with the management of both bias current and input signal power and the reduction of active amplifier width. The signal loss can be controlled and managed by adjusting optimum 30 % gallium core dopant ratio and 28 % arsenide cladding dopant ratio, optimum active layer/with and the presence of room temperature.

Simulation and design of dual-wavelength all-optical semiconductor optical amplifier with solution-processed quantum dots

All-optical semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) present a cost-effective and highly efficient solution for long-distance WDM networks. In this study, the investigation of a dual-wavelength all-optical SOA incorporating two distinct sizes of solution-processed InAs/AlAs core/shell quantum dots (QDs), operating at 1.31 and 1.55 μm wavelengths, both simultaneously and individually, has been proposed. To comprehensively evaluate the optical performance of our proposed dual-wavelength all-optical SOA, the modified coupled rate equations governing carriers dynamics and the optical photon propagation equations have been solved numerically while taking into account both homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening, as well as fluorescence or förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) effects. This computational approach provides valuable insights into the optical behavior of dual-wavelength all-optical SOA. In our proposed structure, cost-effective solution-based methods for implementing QDs of varying sizes offer flexibility to adjust QD size across a broad range, from as small as 0.1 nm to meet specific requirements. This adjustment is made with meticulous consideration of appropriate synthesis techniques.

High-repetition-rate femtosecond "OR" gate design in a differential SOA-MZI

In this article, an experimental investigation of a combined "OR" gate design reliant on a differential semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) is presented. The suggested "OR" gate takes advantage of the cross-gain modulation (XGM) and cross-phase modulation (XPM) effects generated at the SOA-MZI outcome. Furthermore, the optical, electrical, and temporal categories are used for testing and analyzing the system's performance. This "OR" gate technology is very useful in numerous scenarios, especially in optical networking. Numerous factors, including extinction ratio (ER), beam quality factor, and optical and electrical spectra, are used for assessing the optical "OR" gate. With a beam propagation ratio (BPR) of less than 2.4 (M2<2.4), the "OR" gate design provides superb beam quality. The successful creation of the electrical "OR" transmission exhibits about sixteen harmonics with exceptional powers and substantial ERs. The last important phase in optical communications and network connectivity is pulse compression, which can increase the optical average power while enjoying the advantages of brief pulses. In fact, pulse compression combines the intense energy of an extensive pulse with the great accuracy of an extremely short pulse. The grating-fiber compressor approach is widely used to accomplish the pulse compressions. The combined "OR" output pulse, which has undergone pulse compression, has a duration of 50 fs at a wavelength of 1530 nm.

Alternative approach to design Dibit-based XOR and XNOR gate

In this generation, high-speed communication has very demanding. In this respect, optical communication plays a crucial role in meeting the goal of high-speed communication. With the increasing demands of high-speed communication, huge data processing is also needed. Therefore, we have proposed a design of XOR and XNOR gates using five reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers (RSOA). Our proposed gates are dibit logic-based. To increase the reliability of the devise, we have incorporated this logic scheme. Here, we consider the logic state ‘0’ for the absence of pulse and logic state ‘1’ for the presence of pulse. The dibit logic ‘0 1’ and ‘1 0’ are similar as ‘0’ and ‘1’ in digtal states, respectively. To check its practical feasibility, we have simulated the proposed design in Matlabsoftware and also quality factor, contrast, and extinction ratios are calculated for this design.

10 W super-wideband ultra-low-intensity-noise single-frequency fiber laser at 1 µm.

A 10 W super-wideband ultra-low-intensity-noise single-frequency fiber laser (SFFL) at 1 µm is experimentally demonstrated, based on dual gain saturation effects from semiconductors and optical fibers, together with an analog-digital hybrid optoelectronic feedback loop. Three intensity-noise-inhibited units synergistically work, which actualizes a connection of effective bandwidth and enhancement of noise-suppressing amplitude. With the cascade action of the semiconductor optical amplifier and optical fiber amplifier, the laser power is remarkably boosted. Eventually, an SFFL with an output power of 10.8 W and a relative intensity noise (RIN) below -150 dB/Hz at the frequency range over 1 Hz is realized. More meaningfully, within the total frequency range of 10 Hz to 10 GHz exceeding 29 octaves, the RIN is controlled to below -160 dB/Hz, approaching the shot-noise limit (SNL) level. To the best of our knowledge, this is the lowest RIN result of SFFL within such an extensive frequency range, and this is the highest output power of the near-SNL super-wideband SFFL. Furthermore, a linewidth of less than 0.8 kHz, a long-term stable polarization extinction ratio of 20 dB, and an optical signal-to-noise ratio of over 60 dB are obtained simultaneously. This start-of-the-art SFFL has provided a systematic solution for high-power and low-noise light sources, which is competitive for sophisticated applications, such as free-space laser communication, space-based gravitational wave detection, and super-long-distance space coherent velocity measurement and ranging.

Heterogeneous tunable III-V-on-silicon-nitride mode-locked laser emitting wide optical spectra

We demonstrate a III-V-on-silicon-nitride mode-locked laser through the heterogeneous integration of a semiconductor optical amplifier on a passive silicon-nitride cavity using the technique of micro-transfer printing. In the initial phase of our study, we focus on optimizing the lasing wavelength to be centered at 1550 nm. This optimization is achieved by conducting experiments with 27 mode-locked lasers, each incorporating optical amplifiers featuring distinct multiple-quantum-well photoluminescence values. Subsequently we present a comprehensive study investigating the behavior of the mode-locking regime when the electrical driving parameters are varied. Specifically, we explore the impact of the gain voltage and saturable absorber current on the locking stability of a tunable mode-locked laser. By manipulating these parameters, we demonstrate the precise control of the optical spectrum across a wide range of wavelengths spanning from 1530 to 1580 nm. Furthermore, we implement an optimization approach based on a Monte Carlo analysis aimed at enhancing the mode overlap within the gain region. This adjustment enables the achievement of a laser emitting a 23-nm-wide spectrum while maintaining a defined 10 dB bandwidth for a pulse repetition rate of 3 GHz.

Synchronous tunable picosecond surface emitting lasers by optical gain-switching

Generation of sub-100 ps pulses tunable over 48 nm is demonstrated by optically gain-switching a MEMS-vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). A minimum pulse width of 61 ps and a maximum, unamplified peak power of 28 mW are demonstrated. The polarization stability of the VCSELs allows amplification with a polarization-dependent semiconductor optical amplifier, resulting in pulse compression to 57 ps with a peak power of 932 mW. The low threshold power (average &amp;lt;1 mW) enables simultaneous pumping of multiple lasers for the generation of synchronized, independently tunable picosecond pulses.

Concurrent M-QAM transmission performance assessment in a combined four SOA-MZIs arrangement

In this paper, the utilization of four semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder interferometers (SOA-MZIs) is explored to achieve concurrent M-QAM (M-ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) transmission. Utilizing an actively mode-locked laser, we generate pulses with a duration of 0.5 ps at a repetition rate of 20 GHz, serving as our sampling source. The incoming M-QAM signals, spanning various frequencies, undergo down-mixing at the SOA-MZIs combined exit, resulting in diverse output frequencies by respecting the bandpass sampling procedures. The unparalleled simultaneous M-QAM transmission is assessed through critical metrics such as error vector magnitude (EVM) and bit error rate (BER). The SOA-MZI conversion efficiency (CE) exhibits a notable transition, ranging from 90 % at 76 GHz to 68 % at 84 GHz based on 1024-QAM data. The concurrent down-mixed signals showcase EVM values of 3, 2, 1, and 0.25 % for 16-, 64-, 256-, and 1024-QAM, respectively, at the first range of output frequencies. Besides, an exceptional BER value of 93×10−6 is attained at a symbol rate of 0.25 GSymb/s at 84 GHz for the 1024-QAM replica. A comparative analysis reveals that under identical parameter settings, the proposed Gaussian filter expounds lower EVM values compared to the root raised cosine (RRC) filter. These results highlight the success of the novel experimental approach employing SOA-MZIs for simultaneous down-mixing of four M-QAM carriers with varying levels, showcasing outstanding performance outcomes.

ODRAD: An optical wireless DCN dynamic-bandwidth reconfiguration with AWGR and deep reinforcement learning

The rapid growth of Data Center Network (DCN) traffic has brought new challenges, such as limited bandwidth, high latency, and packet loss to existing DCNs based on electrical switches. Because of its theoretically unlimited bandwidth and faster data transmission speeds, optical switching can overcome the problems of electrically switched DCNs. Additionally, numerous research works have been devoted to optical wired DCNs. However, static and fixed-topology DCNs based on optical interconnects significantly limit their flexibility, scalability, and reconfigurability to provide adaptive bandwidth for traffic with heterogeneous characteristics. In this study, we propose and conduct performance evaluations on a reconfigurable optical wireless DCN architecture based on distributed Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA), and Arrayed Waveguide Grating Router (AWGR). Our architecture is called ODRAD (which stands for Optical Wireless DCN Dynamic-bandwidth Reconfiguration with AWGR and Deep Reinforcement Learning). A Mininet simulation model is established to further verify the reconfigurability of the ODRAD network for various server scales. Based on experimental verification, ODRAD achieves an average end-to-end server latency of 5.2μs under a load of 99%. Compression results demonstrate a 17.36% improvement in packet rate latency performance compared to RotorNet and a 15.21% improvement compared to OPSquare at a load of 99% as the ODRAD network scales from 2,560 to 40,960 servers. Furthermore, ODRAD exhibits effective throughput across different routing protocols, DCN scales and loads.

Parity time symmetry all-optical microwave oscillator using a polarization dependent Sagnac loop

An all-optical microwave oscillator based on parity-time symmetry was proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It mainly consists of a big feedback loop, an active small loop and a polarization-dependent Sagnac loop. The microwave seed signal originates from the beating between the continuous wave and the Stokes wave. The function of microwave envelope detection and feedback modulation are implemented through cross gain modulation of two semiconductor optical amplifiers. By employing the parity time symmetry loops and the Vernier effect, the single mode selectivity capability of the oscillator has been enhanced, and a single mode microwave signal with high quality can be generated. In the experiment, a highly quality microwave signal with a frequency of 10.71 GHz was generated. The single side band phase noise can reach −94.1 dBc/Hz@10 kHz and the side mode suppression ratio of the generated microwave signal reaches 41 dB. Compared to the previously reported all-photonic microwave oscillator, the single side band phase noise is improved by 7 dB at a frequency offset of 10 kHz, and by 20 dB at a frequency offset of 100 Hz. The results indicate that our proposed scheme significantly improves the quality of the generated microwave signals.

High-speed signal processing and wide band optical semiconductor amplifier in the optical communication systems

Abstract This work clarifies the analysis of the theoretical study of noise and transmission gain characteristics of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), which are relevant in the novel local area optical communication systems. We investigated the effects of noise on AlGaAs/GaAs SOA transmission performance through the measurement of output power, optical gain, the optical signal-to-noise ratio, and noise figure. It was observed that noise has a dramatic effect on SOAs’ operation transmission efficiency, and the performance of the amplifier structure may be limited. If the drive current and injection power at the SOA can be changed and its active region length modified, then the variation of gain, optical signal-to-noise ratio, and noise figure at the output of the structure can be obtained.

The effect of doping on the electrons and holes in quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifiers

Abstract The doping effect on the reservoir carrier temperature of the electron and hole in quantum dot optical amplifiers (QD SOAs) has been formalized and modeling, taking into account the most of carrier heating (CH) contributions such as; free carrier absorption, carrier heating time relaxation, interdot relaxation time, occupation probability of dot level, injected current and electron-hole interaction. The theoretical simulation shows the carrier temperature increasing straight forward with increasing the surface density of the donor and accepter which had not studied earlier as the best of our knowledge. It clears that, the surface carrier concentration of donor or acceptor atoms supplying more hot carriers for wetting layer (WL) which is leading an increasing the carrier temperature. In other word, the long life time of carriers from WL to Quantum Dot (QD) states is very high. Consequently, the collision of carriers and nonradiative relaxation are increasing the CH effect. Also, the majority of carrier is responsible on the increasing of electron or hole temperature, so the variation electron temperature in N-type is higher than hole in valence band, while the reverse is done with doping with P-type.

Multi-stage coherent beam combination of semiconductor optical amplifiers in ready-made fiber couplers

We report on multi-stage coherent beam combination (CBC) of continuous-wave (CW) outputs from semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) in ready-made fiber couplers. The first CBC stage combines two 120-mW outputs from SOAs seeded by an extended-cavity diode laser (ECDL) at 1458 nm in a 2×2 50%:50% fiber coupler. Two beams generated by two such CBC setups are then combined in the second stage. By concatenating three stages we obtained an output power of 723 mW at 1458 nm from eight SOAs with a total combining efficiency of 75.3%. Stable power generation without interrupts nor degradation over three days was successfully implemented using a simple low-bandwidth servo system. An averaged single-stage combining efficiency of 89.5% deduced from seven CBC setups constituting the three-stage CBC is used to estimate scaling to further stages. As a practical application the output is used to second harmonic generation (SHG) in a nonlinear crystal to achieve an output power of 239 mW at 729 nm.

Multiwavelength fiber laser based on enhanced bidirectional SOA utilizing Lyot filter

We demonstrated a multiwavelength fiber laser (MWFL) based on two bidirectional semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and a Lyot filter. The structure is enhanced by placing two -SOAs in a bidirectional region to improve the lasing performance. This resulted in a higher extinction ratio (ER) of 36.05 dB, as earlier work only achieved a maximum extinction ratio (ER) of 17 dB utilizing an SOA based on bidirectional configuration. The performance of the MWFL in unidirectional and bidirectional configurations, as well as different parameter settings of SOA current and polarization controller (PC) angle is examined. Using a unidirectional configuration decreases the amplification on one side of the SOA, hence reducing the wavelength bandwidth by 2 nm, which is equivalent to six lasing lines. According to the wavelength bandwidth of 13 nm and channel spacing of 0.22 nm, the optimal performance of MWFL employing bidirectional configuration is 56 lasing lines within 3 dB bandwidth. Consequently, we decreased each SOA's operating current, resulting in lower lasing lines. Changing the PC angle modifies the polarization degree and state, hence impacting multiwavelength flatness and wavelength bandwidth performance. When the polarizer is removed, the ER and lasing lines are decreased to 42 dB and 9 nm, respectively. The MWFL has high stability with a peak power fluctuation of 0.25 dB in 120 min.