Ultrashort pulse self-switching in coupled-semiconductor traveling-wave amplifiers

摘要

A study is made of the self-switching of picosecond pulses using an active nonlinear directional coupler formed by two semiconductor laser amplifiers. Self-phase modulation associated with gain saturation permits all-optical control of output pulses emerging from the amplifiers, but switching from the cross state to the bar state is limited to 50% of the output energy. The amplified output pulses may be switched with little temporal distortion while considerable red shift in the output pulse spectra may occur.