Experimental Study on Wavelength Tunability of All-Optical Flip-Flop Based on Multimode-Interference Bistable Laser Diode

Author

Takeda, K. ; Takenaka, M. ; Tanemura, T. ; Nakano, Y.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Inf. Syst., Univ. of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Volume

1

Issue

1

fYear

2009

fDate

6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

40

Lastpage

47

Abstract

We demonstrate a wavelength-tunable all-optical flip-flop (AOFF) based on a multimode-interference (MMI) bistable laser diode (BLD) with distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). The wavelength tuning can be achieved by the band-filling effect and the free-carrier plasma effect with carrier injections to the DBRs. The tuning range of 3.1 nm will enable flexible and reconfigurable design of future photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Since the DBR-MMI-BLD does not require cleaved facets for its operation, multiple AOFFs can be monolithically integrated on a single PIC. In addition, the device has a large operable bandwidth of wider than 34 nm, even when we tune the lasing wavelength. A dynamic flip-flop operation is also demonstrated with rising and falling times of faster than 280 and 228 ps, respectively. No waveform distortion is observed, even when we tune the lasing wavelength.

Keywords

distributed Bragg reflectors; flip-flops; integrated optics; optical bistability; optical logic; semiconductor lasers; all optical flip flop; band filling effect; distributed Bragg reflector; free carrier plasma effect; multimode interference bistable laser diode; photonic integrated circuits; wavelength tunability; Circuit optimization; Diode lasers; Distributed Bragg reflectors; Distributed feedback devices; Flip-flops; Laser tuning; Optical fiber networks; Photonics; Surface emitting lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; Fabrication and characterization; integrated photonic system; semiconductor lasers; waveguide device;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Journal, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1943-0655

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOT.2009.2025670

Filename

5089469