Methods to speed up the gain recovery of an SOA

Zhi Wang, Yongjun Wang, Qingwen Meng, Rui Zhao School of Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044 zhiwang@bjtu.edu.cn
ABSTRACT
The semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are employed in all optical networking and all optical signal processing due to the excellent nonlinearity and high speed. The gain recovery time is the key parameter to describe the response speed of the SOA. The relationship between the gain dynamics and a few operation parameters is obtained in this article. A few simple formula and some simulations are demonstrated, from which, a few methods to improve the response speed of the SOA can be concluded as following, lengthening the active area, or lessening the cross area, increasing the injection current, increasing the probe power, operating with a CW holding beam. Keywords: semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), gain dynamics, gain recovery time, all optical signal processing

1. INTRODUCTION
Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), which has the advantages of high nonlinear coefficient, great gain, fast responsibility, compact size, integrateable with many other semiconductor optical devices, is the key device for the future high-speed large-capacity all-optical network and all-optical signal processing [1]. SOA can be used as an inlineamplifier, and mainly employed for high-speed optical switches, optical logics, wavelength converters, modulators, and so on, which are based on the nonlinear effects, such as cross-gain modulation (XGM), cross-phase modulation (XPM), four-wave mixing (FWM), etc.. The gain and phase dynamics of SOA have attracted many peoples to engage in the theories and experiments jobs because the characteristics of the SOA-devices are dominated by the response speed of nonlinear progress of the SOA used. There are some methods to improve the response speed of the SOA [2-4], but most of them are experimental results, without detailed theoretical analysis. Ref. [5] has got the approximate formula of the effective gain recovery time based on the carrier rate equations and the optical signal propagation equations, but it does not including the assistant holding beam. In our manuscript, the dynamics of the gain saturation and recovery are obtained theoretically, and the relationship between the gain recovery time and some operation status parameters are demonstrated approximately based on the carrier rate equations and the light propagation equations with the consideration of the holding beam. Some improvements to speed up the gain recovery time of the SOA are presented, such as lengthening the active area, increasing the injection current, increasing the probe power, using the holding beam, or lessening the cross-section of the active area.

2. GAIN SATURATION AND RECOVERY

The control light pulse Pc, the CW probe light Pp, and the CW holding beam Ph are simultaneously input the SOA, as shown in Fig. 1. The output probe light is investigated based on the carrier rate equations and the light propagation equations [1-6] (the absorption loss is neglected.), shown as Eqs. (1) and (2).

a[ N ( z , t ) N t ] N ( z , t ) I N ( z, t ) = Pi ( z , t ) , t eV Ahc / i c i =c , p ,h

(1)

Pi ( z , t ) = a[ N ( z, t ) N t ]Pi ( z, t ) , ( i=c,p,h). z

(2)

Optoelectronic Devices and Integration II, edited by Xuping Zhang, Hai Ming, Maggie Yihong Chen, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6838, 68380R, (2007) 0277-786X/07/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.755310

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6838 68380R-1 2008 SPIE Digital Library -- Subscriber Archive Copy

L Pc Pp Ph
Fig. 1 Operation of the SOA

Pp SOA

Under the control light pulse, the SOA will be gain saturated and the probe light will experience the gain as:

G (t ) =

G0 , G0 ( G0 1) exp ( Ec ( t ) Esc )

(3)

Where, G0=exp(H0) is the small signal gain without the control light, and H0=g0L, g0=a[Ic/(eV)-Nt] is the small signal gain coefficient, Ec ( t ) =

Pc ( ) d is the injection energy of the control pulse before time t, Esi=hiA/(a) is the

saturation energy of the SOA at the frequency i, I is the injection current, e is the positive electron charge, V is the volume of the active area, c is the carrier life-time, is the power confinement factor, a is the gain cross-section, Nt is the transparent carrier concentration, h is the Plank constant, i=c,p,h represent the control light, the probe light and the holding beam, respectively, Pi(z,t) is the light power along z-direction in the SOA, i is the optical frequency, A is the cross-section of the active area. After the control pulse, the carrier will recover and hence the gain will recover, and the gain of the probe light will be

t G ( t ) = exp ( H ( t ) ) , H ( t ) = H 0 1 b exp , f
Where f is the time constant of the gain recovery, and

(4)

P P + p + h exp ( g 0 L ) , c Esp Esh 1

(5)

b=1-lnGs/H0 is the integration constant, Gs is the saturated gain at the end of the control light pulse, and is defined by Eq. (3). According to the definition of the gain recovery time, during which the gain G recovers from 10% to 90% of G0, the gain recovery time can be expressed as

t = f ln (1 lg 9 ) 3.08 f .

(6)

It is obviously that the gain recovery time of the SOA depends on the power of the probe light and the holding beam, the length and the cross-section of the active area and the injection current besides the intrinsic carrier life-time.

3. METHODS TO SPEED UP THE GAIN RECOVERY

Referring to the commercial SOAs, the typical parameters are listed in Table 1 for the numerical simulations, and the control light is a Gaussian pulse. In order to be more easily to find the rules, only one specified parameter varies and others keep constants when the simulations are implemented in the following.
Table 1. typical parameters for the numerical simulations [3,6,7] Parameters Length of the active area Typical value 0.3mm Parameters Confinement factor Typical value 0.3

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Width of the active area Height of the active area Transparency carrier concentration Wavelength of control light FWHM of control light Wavelength of probe light Wavelength of holding beam

1um 0.4um 1.21023m-3 1544nm 30ps 1555nm 1480nm

Gain cross section Injection current Carrier life-time Pulse energy of the control light Index of active area Power of probe light Power of holding beam

310-20m2 200mA 200ps 1pJ 3.75 0.1mw 0.1mW

3.1 the holding beam The gain dynamics of the SOA with different holding beams are illustrated in Fig. 2(a), in which the Gaussian control pulse is also plotted with the peak at t=0. It can be found that the holding beam has scarcely any effects on the gain saturation because the energy of the holding beam is much less than that of the control light. Because the holding beam increases the photon concentration in the SOA and enhances the interaction between the carriers and the photons, the gain recovery time will be shorten as increasing the holding beam power, and the response speed of the device will be improved. In order to be more distinct, the relationship between the gain recovery time and the holding beam power is shown in Fig. 2(b).
26

266

26

If

ii:
-lUdBm

\froie
-300 -200
-lOU 0
IOU

200

300

400

600

I (ps)

power orthe holding beam (dOw)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 2 (a) is the gain dynamics with different holding beam power, and (b) is the relationship between the gain recovery time and the holding beam power.

3.2 the cross-section of the active area The size of the active area acts as a very important role to the response speed of the SOA devices. The gain recovery time is shorter with longer active area, so that most high speed SOA-based devices employ long- cavity structure [5]. We have studied the gain dynamics for different SOAs with different cross-section of the active area as shown in Fig. 3(a). With the greater cross-section, not only the gain recovery time is longer, but also the gain of the probe light is degraded because the injection current density decreases and hence the carrier concentration. The relationship between the gain recovery time and the cross-section is plotted in Fig. 3(b).

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36 --36

000

26 -- 6.6km2
.L. 16km2
U.312m2

000

400
0

0 300

1:
0

200

too

-366 -266 -IOU

IOU 266 366 466 666 666 766 666

I(ps)

0.0
croon section area (tam2)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 3 (a) is the gain dynamics with different cross-area, and (b) is the relationship between the gain recovery time and the cross-area.

3.3 the injection current The injection current is one of the key operation parameters of the SOA, and the gain can be enhanced with greater injection current. The gain saturation and gain recovery properties are shown in Fig. 4(a) with different injection currents. It is obviously that not only the gain is greater, but also the gain recovery time is smaller with larger injection current. The relationship between the gain recovery time and the injection current is shown in Fig. 4(b). When the injection current increases, the current density and the carrier concentration are both increased, and this can enhance the interaction between the carriers and the photons. As a result, the response speed can be improved by shortening the gain recovery time with higher gain.
40
700

30 - 200mA
400 mA
IOU mA

800

000

. 400

300

200

IOU

-300 -200 -IOU

IOU 200 300 400 800 800 700 800

I (ps)

80

lOU

lOU

200

280

300

380

injection current (mA)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 4 (a) is the gain dynamics with different injection current, and (b) is the relationship between the gain recovery time and the injection current.

3.4 the probe light The probe light itself injects photons into the SOA too, increasing the probe light power increases the photon density in the active area, which enhances the interaction between the photons and the carriers, and speeds up the gain recovery. However, the gain will decrease and the extinction ratio of the output signal will be smaller when the probe light power

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is enough high to reach the saturated optical power. The gain dynamics and the relationship between the gain recovery time and the probe light power is demonstrated in Fig. 5(a) and (b).

co

G (dB)

co

C C

(a)
200

180 - 180 140 120

IOU

80 80 40 20

-20

-IS

-10

-8

power orthe probe light (dBm)

(b) Fig. 5 (a) is the gain dynamics with different probe light power, and (b) is the relationship between the gain recovery time and the probe light power.

4. CONCLUSIONS
SOAs are widely used as high speed nonlinear devices in modern all optical signal processing and all optical control technologies. As discussed in this report, there are a few methods to speed up the gain recovery and the response speed of the SOA-based devices by enhancing the interaction between the carriers and the photons in the active area, such as increasing the carrier concentration (increasing the injection current, or lessening the cross-section), increasing the photon density (increasing the power of the holding beam or the probe light).

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I
10

In fact, there are some other ways to improve the response properties of the SOA-based photonic devices based on the current techniques [1]. SOA-cascaded configuration, SOA followed by filter, employing the phase or polarization nonlinearities of SOAs, counter propagation of the control light and the probe light, all these schemes can effectively improve the system response speed for the ultra high speed (>40Gb/s) all optical signal processing.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project is supported by the National 863 project (grant No. 2007AA01Z270), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, National Natural Science Foundation Project of China (grant No. 60402006, 60577020), and the foundation of Beijing Jiaotong University (grant No. 2005SZ001).

REFERENCES
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Niloy K Dutta, Qiang Wang, Semiconductor optical amplifier, Word Scientific Publication (Sg), 2006. G. Talli, M. J. Adams, Gain Dynamics of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers and Three-Wavelength Devices, IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, 39(10), 1305-1313 (2003). 3 Antonio Mecozzi, Jesper Mrk, Saturation Effects in Nondegenerate Four-Wave Mixing Between Short Optical Pulses in Semiconductor Laser Amplifiers, IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, 3(5), 1190-1207 (1997). 4 F. Girardin, G. Guekos, A. Houbavlis, Gain Recovery of Bulk Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers, IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, 10(6), 784-786 (1998). 5 Dong Jianji, Zhang Xinliang, Huang Dexiu, Experimental and theoretical study on gain dynamics of SOA, ACTA PHYSICA SINICA, 54(2), 763-767 (2005) (in Chinese). 6 Hanxing Shi, Performance Analysis on Semiconductor Laser Amplifier Loop Mirrors, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, 20(4), 682-688 (2002). 7 www.ciphotonics.com

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