Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

450 Pages·2013·16.02 MB·English

by  Dutta N.K.

Semiconductor
Optical Amplifiers
Second Edition
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Semiconductor
Optical Amplifiers
Second Edition
Niloy K. Dutta & Qiang Wang
University of Connecticut, USA
World Scientific
NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI
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Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dutta, N. K. (Niloy K.), 1953–
Semiconductor optical amplifiers / Niloy K. Dutta & Qiang Wang. -- 2nd edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-9814489034 (hardcover : alkaline paper)
1. Semiconductors. 2. Optical communications. I. Wang, Qiang. II. Title.
TK8320.D87 2013
621.382'7--dc23
2013018607
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2013 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
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Printed in Singapore
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Preface
In the past two decades, optical communications has totally changed
the way we communicate. It is a revolution that has fundamentally
transformed the core of telecommunications, i.e. its basic science,
its enabling technology, and its industry. The optical networking
technology represents a revolution inside the optical communication
revolution anditallows thelatter tocontinueits exponentialgrowth.
The existence and advance of optical fiber communications are
based on the invention of low-loss optical fibers, the invention of
the laser, particularly the semiconductor junction laser and related
disciplines like photodetectors and integrated optics. From the early
pioneering ideas, it took more than 25 years, to the first commer-
cial deployment of optical communications; the Northeast Corridor
system linking Washington and New York in 1983. Another impor-
tant advance is the deployment of the first transatlantic submarine
optical fiber transmission system in 1988. Optical fiber communica-
tions began to seriously impact the way information is transmitted
beginning with these milestone achievements.
The market demand for higher capacity transmission was helped
by the fact that computers continued to become more powerful and
needed to be interconnected. This is one of the key reasons why the
explosive growth of optical fiber transmission technology parallels
that of computer processing and other key information technolo-
gies. These technologies have combined to meet the explosive global
demand for new information services including data, internet, and
broadband services — and, most likely, their rapid advances have
helpedfuelthisdemand.Thisdemandiscontinuingitsstronggrowth
as internet traffic keeps increasing every year.
Optical networking represents the next advance in optical com-
munications technology. Semiconductor optical amplifier is a key
v
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vi Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (2nd Edition)
device for all-optical networks. The advances in research and many
technological innovations have led to superior designs of semicon-
ductor amplifiers. Although many optical communication systems
use optical fiber amplifiers for signal amplification, semiconductor
optical amplifiers are suitable for integration and can also be used as
functional devices. These functional properties such as wavelength
conversion, optical demultiplexing, and, optical logic elements make
them attractive forall-optical network andoptical time divisionmul-
tiplexed systems.
The need for higher capacity is continuing to encourage research
in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) based and optical time
divisionmultiplexing(OTDM)basedtransmission,whichneedsopti-
cal demultiplexer and high power tunable lasers. An important
research area would continue to be the development of semicon-
ductor optical amplifiers as Mach-Zehnder, Michelsen interferome-
ters and low power amplifiers in integrated devices. Semiconductor
optical amplifiers with quantum dot active region are important for
high speed optical signal processing systems due to their high sat-
uration power and short gain recovery time. Reflective semiconduc-
tor optical amplifiers are important for commercial wavelength divi-
sion multiplexed based passive optical network (WDM-PON). Two-
photon absorption in a semiconductor optical amplifier is a very fast
process and may be suitable for Tera-bit/s signal processing. Semi-
conductoroptical amplifiersandsuperluminescentdiodes(SLDs)are
high power broadband sources suitable for optical coherence tomog-
raphy and sensors applications.
All-optical signal processing is expected to become increasingly
important in future ultrahigh capacity telecommunication networks.
The development of all-optical logic technology is important for a
wide range of applications in all-optical networks, including high
speed all-optical packet routing, and optical encryption. An impor-
tant step in the development of this technology is the demonstration
of optical logic elements and circuits, which can also operate at high
speeds. These logic elements include the traditional Boolean logic
functions such as XOR, OR, AND, INVERT etc, and circuits such
as parity checker, all-optical adder and shift register. Semiconductor
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Preface vii
opticalamplifierbaseddevicessuchasMach-Zehnderinterferometers
arebeinginvestigated forthedevelopmentofall-opticallogiccircuits.
N. K. Dutta
Q. Wang
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Contents
Preface v
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Historical Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Semiconductor Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Operating Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5 Book Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.6 Future Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2. Basic Concepts 15
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 Optical Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.1 Gain spectrum and bandwidth . . . . . . . 16
2.2.2 Gain saturation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Dielectric Waveguide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 Condition for Amplification . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.5 P-N Junction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.6 Amplifier Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.7 Multiquantum Well Amplifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3. Recombination Mechanisms and Gain 37
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2 Radiative Recombination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
ix