Reflective optical bistability and nonlinear switching in a 1550-nm vertical-cavity semiconductor optical amplifier (VCSOA)
Antonio Hurtado, Ian D. Henning, M.J. Adams
We report experimental measurements of Optical Bistability (OB) and nonlinear switching in a 1550 nm-Vertical-Cavity Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (VCSOA) operated in reflection and biased below and above its threshold current. Two different types of OB and nonlinear switching, anticlockwise and clockwise, have been observed in both the optical power and wavelength domain. The influence of important parameters including the bias current, the initial wavelength detuning and the optical input power has also been studied. The existence of diverse forms of OB and nonlinear switching in a VCSOA operated in reflection opens the door for the development of inverting and non-inverting logic gates, using, respectively, the anticlockwise or the clockwise nonlinear switching transitions appearing in the VCSOA under external optical injection.
Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•May 18, 2007•0 citations