Quantum theory of light interaction with an optical amplifier

Zhaoying Wang, Miaomiao Hu, Dongfang Jia +1 more

Optoelectronic technology played a pivotal role in the unprecedented information revolution in the past two decades. One of the remaining grand challenges is the ability to store an optical signal in optical format. So slowing down the velocity of light have recently attracted substantial interest. In various mechanisms of slow light generation, semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) attracts much attention because it offers the advantage of compactness, room temperature operation, electric-optical controllable and easy integration with existing optical communication systems. In this paper, slow light generation in SOA using four wave mixing (FWM) effect is analyzed. The dynamic changes of the signal light time delay with the outside controllable parameters, such as the injection current into SOA, the pump light power, the detuning frequency between pump light and signal light, are numerically solved on the basis of the theory of refractive modulation-index and the sub-sections model of SOA. This method has the advantage of accurate simulated results and providing the explicit relationships between the controllable parameters with the signal light time delay for the practical experiment.

David Nielsen, Akira Matsudaira, S. L. Chuang +3 more

We report on experimental work investigating slow- and fast-light in a ring-laser cavity that utilizes a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as its primary gain medium. By allowing a pulse to propagate around the loop multiple times, we are able to achieve a tunable delay-bandwidth product near 10 for a 10-ps pulse. Our results show a shift between fast-light, as expected in a typical SOA, to slow-light as the pulse propagates around the loop. This slow-light phenomenon in a gain medium is not expected from an SOA, but arises due to the interaction between the lasing mode and the signal mode.

David W. Ball

胡苗苗 HU Miao-miao, 王肇颖 Wang Zhaoying, 杨天新 YANG Tian-xin +1 more

In the semiconductor optical amplifer,based on the theory of four wave mixing effect and refractive modulation-index generated by equivalent grating,dynamic changes of the signal light time delay with the outside controllable parameters,such as the injection current into semiconductor optical amplifier(SOA),the pump light power,the detuning frequency between pump light and signal light,were numerically simulated by the method of subsections model of SOA.Compared with the former simulation of slow light from the slow down factor view,this method has the advantage of associating the signal time delay with outside controllable parameters and providing the intuitional guidce for the experiment.Meanwhile,the method by subsections model of SOA has higher accuracy.Compared with the existing experimental results,it indicates that the numerically simulated results agree well with the measurements.

Marc-Oliver Pleinert