Chinese Journal of Lasers
Improving the Filter and Bistable Characteristics of Distributed-Feedback Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers Based on Linearly Variable Current Injection
Xin-Hong Jia, Guang-Qiong Xia
Abstract
The distributed-feedback semiconductor optical amplifiers(DFB-SOAs) possess the dual functions of amplifier and filter due to the built-in grating.If the input power is close to saturation value,dispersive optical bistability occurs as a consequence of the positive feedback loop informed among the optical intensity in active-layer,effective mode refractive index,and resonance amplification frequency.By introducing spatial phase-shift and chirp,the filter and bistable performances can be improved.A novel configuration based on linearly variable current injection is proposed to improve the filter and bistable characteristics of the DFB-SOAs.The coupled mode equation and carrier rate equation are used to perform characteristic comparisons of this configuration with phase-shifted and chirped DFB-SOAs.The results show that,this method not only enhances the on-off switching ratio,but also has similar transmission spectra with phase-shift effect method,and similar bistable features,such as the wide-band and the flat upper branch of the hysteresis,with chirp effect method.