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Applied Physics Letters

Switching power dependence on detuning and current in bistable diode laser amplifiers

Zeqi Pan, Hongchin Lin, M. Dagenais

Published Feb 18, 1991• 30 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Measurements of the optical power required to switch on-and-off an optical bistable diode laser amplifier as a function of detuning and current from threshold are presented. Good quantitative agreement between the theory for a nonlinear Fabry–Perot and the experimental results are obtained. A linewidth enhancement factor of 3.1 and a value for the change of the refractive index versus carrier density of −1.8×10−20 cm3 are extracted from the measurements.

DOI
10.1063/1.104569

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Measurements of the optical power required to switch on-and-off an optical bistable diode laser amplifier as a function of detuning and current from threshold are presented. Good quantitative agreement between the theory for a nonlinear Fabry–Perot and the experimental results are obtained. A linewidth enhancement factor of 3.1 and a value for the change of the refractive index versus carrier density of −1.8×10−20 cm3 are extracted from the measurements.
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Bistable laser amplifiers are attractive for potential application in optical switching because of very low input optical requirement, high extinction ratio and the presence of optical gain. Optical bistability (OB) arises from gain saturation and the associated nonlinear refraction combined with the effect of feedback in the laser cavity. We present the experimental results of bistable characteristics for the case of a 1.55 /spl mu/m symmetric Fabry-Perot (F-P) laser amplifier with uncoated facets. This paper reports a particularly rich variety of behaviour for reflected signals. Three main forms of hysteresis loops are observed on reflection. The hysteresis loop changes from anticlockwise to clockwise hysteresis in the optical input-output characteristic when the drive current or initial phase detuning is changed. The butterfly hysteresis loop is observed experimentally at optical input power as low as 260 /spl mu/W for a drive current equal to 90% of the lasing threshold. The dependence of the optical bistability on drive current, initial phase detuning and injected optical power has been investigated. In the bistable light output-initial phase detuning characteristic, the optimum frequency is shifted downward with an increase in the injected power or the drive current. All measurements are in good agreement with an analytical model.
We report the demonstration of cascadability in bistable diode laser amplifiers operated below threshold. A schematic of the experimental set-up is shown in Figure 1. There it is shown that the optical input to the first bistable diode laser amplifier is modulated by a mechanical chopper at frequency Ω1. The output from the first bistable diode laser amplifier is then modulated at Ω2= 2Ω1using a second mechanical chopper. The light is thereafter used as the input to the second bistable device. When the input intensity to the second device is higher than a certain threshold, the output switches. These results are shown in Figure 2. For these experiments, each of the bistable diode laser amplifiers were carefully studied. Detailed bistability measurements at different bias currents and different cavity detuning's were performed. It was found that both the bistability loop and the switching power gets larger as the detuning increases. The size of the hysteresis loop also increased as the laser was operated closer to threshold. In a two beam experiment, it was found that the switching power in the data beam can be as small as 25 nW. Gains larger than 1000 have been demonstrated, indicating the large fan-out capability of these devices. The turn-on and turn-off times in these bistable diode laser amplifiers was measured to be faster than 1 ns and detector limited. These bistable diode laser amplifiers are the most efficient optical devices that have yet been demonstrated and will find applications in photonic switching networks.
We present experimental measurements of bistable characteristics for the case of a 1.55-/spl mu/m symmetric Fabry-Perot laser amplifier with a particularly rich variety of behavior for reflected signals. Three main forms of hysteresis loops are observed on reflection. The hysteresis loop changes from anticlockwise to clockwise hysteresis in the optical output-input characteristic when the drive current or initial phase detuning is changed. A "butterfly" hysteresis loop is observed experimentally at an optical input power as low as 300 /spl mu/W for a drive current equal to 94% of the lasing threshold. The dependence of the reflective optical bistability on drive current, initial phase detuning, and injected optical pewter has been investigated for the first time in an uncoated 1.55-/spl mu/m amplifier. Measurements of the device voltage shifts on switching reveal hysteresis loops which match those in the corresponding optical powers and which indicate the amount of gain saturation and nonlinear refraction responsible for bistability. An analytical model is used to describe the observed reflective bistability and to give insight into the detailed physical mechanisms responsible.