Design of SOA-based dual-loop optical buffer with a 3 × 3 collinear coupler: Guideline and optimizations

Songnian Fu, P. Shum, Liren Zhang, Chongqing Wu, A. M. Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this paper, theoretical and experimental analyses of the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based dual-loop all optical buffer (DLOB) with a 3 × 3 collinear coupler are presented. Two kinds of DLOB configurations and their choices of nonlinear elements are compared. After that, a novel SOA-based DLOB with Sagnac configuration is proposed. The proposed DLOB is simple, compact, and inherently stable. The required control signal power of this optical buffer (OB) is on the order of 1 mW, and no extra optical amplifier is needed to compensate the power loss. How the linewidth enhancement factor of SOA, the asymmetry power ratio, and the polarization characteristic of 3 × 3 collinear coupler, as well as SOA directional gain difference, may hamper the performance is examined systematically. Finally, the loading and reading operations with DLOB for packet data at the bit rate of 150 Mb/s and 2.5 Gb/s are demonstrated.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2768-2778
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Lightwave Technology
Volume24
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2006
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • All optical buffer (OB)
  • All optical packet switching (OPS)
  • Collinear 3 × 3 fiber coupler
  • Interferometric switch
  • Linewidth enhancement factor
  • Polarization
  • Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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