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International Nano-Optoelectronics Workshop

Theoretical and experimental study of chirped-pulse slow and fast light using semiconductor optical amplifiers

Bala Pesala, Forrest G. Sedgwick, Alexander V. Uskov, Connie J. Chang-Hasnain

Published Aug 1, 2008• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present theoretical study of fast and slow light in a chirp-compensate semiconductor optical amplifier scheme. We obtain excellent match with experimental results. Using this model, we predict that a delay-bandwidth product of 33 can be attained with properly chosen parameters.
DOI
10.1109/inow.2008.4634506

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Chirped pulse scheme is shown to be highly effective to attain large tunable time shifts via slow and fast light for an ultra-short pulse through a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). We show for the first time that advance can be turned into delay by simply reversing the sign of the chirp. A large continuously tunable advance-bandwidth product (ABP) of 4.7 and delay-bandwidth product (DBP) of 4.0 are achieved for a negatively and positively chirped pulse in the same device, respectively. We show that the tunable time shift is a direct result of self-phase modulation (SPM). Theoretical simulation agrees well with experimental results. Further, our simulation results show that by proper optimization of the SOA and chirper design, a large continuously tunable DBP of 55 can be achieved.
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Slow and fast light enables key functionality in various rf applications and all-optical networks. Semiconductor-based schemes offer electrical control of velocity at very high bandwidths in an extremely compact device. Furthermore, they operate at room temperature and can be easily integrated into various optical systems. Ultrafast nonlinear processes in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) have been used to achieve tunable slow and fast light in the terahertz bandwidth. For a 700 fs pulse, we show an electrically and optically controllable advance of 1.9 ps corresponding to an advance-bandwidth product (ABP) of 2.5. Furthermore, by leveraging self-phase modulation in these devices, we extend the performance to an ABP of 3.7. We develop comprehensive theory using a density matrix approach to explain the experimental results. Our results show that an ultrashort pulse propagating through the SOA experiences nonlinear index change due to spectral-hole burning and wave mixing between different spectral components. We derive analytical expressions for the nonlinear index induced by these ultrafast processes and numerically solve the propagation of an ultrashort pulse through the SOA. Our theoretical predictions agree very well with our experimental results. Finally, we show fast light for two ultrashort pulses separated by 7.2 ps, which demonstrates the feasibility of this scheme at high bit rates.