Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
Enhancement of the low-frequency response of a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier slow light-based microwave phase shifter by forced coherent population oscillations
Aidan Meehan, Michael J. Connelly
Abstract
The enhancement of the low frequency gain response of a microwave phase shifter based on slow light in a bulk reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA), by using forced coherent population oscillations (FCPO), is experimentally demonstrated. FCPO is achieved by simultaneously modulating the input optical power and bias current. The beat signal gain improvement ranges from 45 to 0 dB over a frequency range of 0.5 to 2.5 GHz, thereby improving the noise performance of the phase shifter. Tunable phase shifts of up to 40º are possible over this frequency range.