Performance analysis on semiconductor laser amplifier loop mirrors

Author

Shi, Hanxing

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Volume

20

Issue

4

fYear

2002

fDate

4/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

682

Lastpage

688

Abstract

Operating characteristics of the semiconductor laser amplifier loop mirror (SLALOM) in optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM) applications are investigated in theory. The injection current of the semiconductor laser amplifier (SLA) should be adjusted to realize a flat and high switching window. The channel crosstalk induced by the finite carrier lifetime and the signal timing jitter should be balanced. The optimal switching window width should be slightly wider than half of the OTDM signal bit interval. The control pulse should be narrower than one-third of the OTDM bit interval in order not to deteriorate the bit error rate (BER) performance. Further discussion indicates that the nonlinear gain compression in the SLA becomes a crucial limit for the SLA-based all-optical switches to be used in the terahertz applications

Keywords

carrier lifetime; laser mirrors; nonlinear optics; optical switches; optical transmitters; semiconductor device models; semiconductor optical amplifiers; submillimetre wave devices; time division multiplexing; timing jitter; OTDM signal bit interval; SLA-based all-optical switches; TDM; bit error rate; channel crosstalk; control pulse; finite carrier lifetime; high switching window; injection current; nonlinear gain compression; optical time-division multiplexing; optimal switching window; performance analysis; semiconductor laser amplifier; semiconductor laser amplifier loop mirrors; signal timing jitter; terahertz applications; Bit error rate; Laser theory; Mirrors; Nonlinear optics; Optical crosstalk; Performance analysis; Pulse amplifiers; Semiconductor lasers; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Stimulated emission;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.996589

Filename

996589