Study On VCSOA Gain Characteristics And Cross Gain Modulation Technology

Optical amplifier, which is very important for applied all-optic network, is the key opto-electric device in modern optical communications. With the improving of vertical cavity devices, a kind of semiconductor optical amplifier based on vertical micro Fabry-Perot resonant cavity, vertical cavity semiconductor optical amplifier (VCSOA), are proposed and widely developed in recent years. Compared with conventional edge-emitting semiconductor amplifiers, VCSOA has the inherent advantage of polarization insensitivity, high fiber coupling efficiency, single longitudinal mode working and easy for fabricating two-dimensional arrays on wafer. It has a wide range of potential applications in optical communication networks, optical signal processing, optical computations.Based on VCSOA special device structure, conventional F-P mode edge-emitting semiconductor amplifier gain and bandwidth theory, and semiconductor laser single-mode rate equations, we gave out the numerical analyses on static and dynamic properties of VCSOA. Optical gain and bandwidth is calculated respectively in reflection and transmission mode due to the varieties of distributed Bragg reflector (DBR)'s reflectivity and single pass gain, showing that higher DBR reflectivity yields higher gain, while the increase of gain is with the decrease of optical bandwidth. In order to configure gain and optical bandwidth appropriately, a concept of the gain-bandwidth product is introduced. The results show that the gain above 10dB, optical bandwidth above 50GHz can be achieved. In reflection mode VCSOA, the facts about gain saturation properties are given that output saturation power are changing because of the variation of optical pump power or output DBR reflectivity. Dynamic power extension is analyzed simultaneously. A conclusion is made that strong pump light power will lead to gain flatness and larger gain.With extended theory model, wavelength conversion via cross gain modulation of reflection mode VCSOA (VCSOA-XGM) is simulated for the first time. VCSOA-XGM wavelength conversion speed, extinction ratio and noise of output signal are investigated by considering input signal power, probe power and other parameters. In simulation, wavelength conversion is working at 500Mbit/s input signal, with wavelength up or down conversion range 2nm , maximum output...