Measurement of SOA linewidth enhancement factor with a sagnac fiber loop

Songnian Fu, Weihong Du, P. Shum, Chongqing Wu, Liren Zhang

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    9 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We demonstrate a novel method to measure the linewidth enhancement factor (α-factor) of the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). We derived theoretically the quantitative relationships among the α-factor, the cross-gain modulation, the cross-phase modulation, and the contrast ratio of an SOA-based Sagnac fiber loop. We found that the α-factor value can be calculated directly from the maximum power contrast ratio measurement. Our experiment results show that the obtained α-factor fluctuates within a small range of 5.23 to 6.83 when the bias current varies from 130 to 240 mA. Compared with existing measurement methods, our method is more attractive because of its simple configuration and better stability.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1934-1936
    Number of pages3
    JournalIEEE Photonics Technology Letters
    Volume18
    Issue number18
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Sept 15 2006

    Keywords

    • Linewidth enhancement factor (α-factor)
    • Phase modulation
    • Sagnac fiber loop
    • Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
    • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
    • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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