SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS FOR SIMULTANEOUS OPTICAL AMPLIFICATION, MODULATION AND DETECTION

A theoretical showing model has been suggested for the simulation of s emiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) showing that a set of linearize d equations can be derived to describe their multifunctional behaviour . The experimental results confirm the model and further more demonstr ate the capability of SOAs to perform different functions at the same time. In particular, a simultaneous amplifier/detector has been design ed with 24 dB gain and a sensitivity of -32.3 dBm at 700 Mb/s and a si multaneous amplifier/modulator with 24 dB gain, more than 30 dB gain o n/off and transient times below 1 ns. Also the realization of a wide-b and optical memory loop and an automatic gain/power control circuit ba sed on the multifunctionality of a SOA is reported.