Recovery dynamics of cross-modulated beam phase in semiconductor amplifiers and applications to all-optical signal processing

摘要

An analysis of the cross-phase modulation of a lightwave beam using a short optical pulse excitation is presented as a function of the saturation level of a semiconductor optical amplifier. The optical phase response is characterised by introducing a new recovery time parameter useful for the analysis of phase modulation-based applications. It is shown that, unlike the 10-90% recovery time, the parameter increases with amplifier saturation. A comparison through computer simulations between the operation characteristics of a wavelength converter and a time-division demultiplexer is carried out in the light of this parameter, which it is shown to be the limiting factor for fast operation of the latter device.