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Applied Sciences
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Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers
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Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Optics and Lasers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2017) | Viewed by 49829

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Kyriakos E. Zoiros

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Lightwave Communications Research Group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi, Greece
Interests: SOA devices; circuits and subsystems; applications of microring resonators in optical communications; microwave photonics; free-space optical communications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The technology of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) is a key enabler for the development, implementation, optimization, and overall establishment of photonic circuits, subsystems, and networks. Thanks to the remarkable advancements that have been achieved in the field, SOAs exhibit several important properties, such as strong nonlinearities, low power consumption, wavelength flexibility, large dynamic range, fast response, broadband and versatile operation, small footprint with potential for integration in single chips and affordable cost. These attractive characteristics have rendered SOAs core elements for the accomplishment of critical tasks in fundamental and system-oriented level. Thus, SOAs have been widely adopted as the principal technological platform for realizing diverse applications with high performance.

The purpose of this Special Issue on “Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers” is, on one hand, to address, present and investigate modern applications of various types of state-of-the-art SOAs, while, on the other hand, to explore and highlight trends, challenges and perspectives for motivating efforts toward continuous exploitation of these active modules in a feasible, innovative, and beneficial manner.

The scope of this Special Issue includes SOAs applications areas such as:

  • Direct signal amplification

  • External modulation

  • Optical pulse generation and manipulation

  • All-optical signal processing

  • All-optical computing

  • All-optical combinational and sequential logic circuits

  • Free space optics

  • Optical wireless communications

  • Optical access networks

  • Converged telecommunications networks

  • Radio-over-fiber systems

  • Fiber cable television

  • Microwave/Terahertz photonics

  • Optical switching

  • Optical interconnects

  • Optical Time Division and Wavelength Division Multiplexing systems and networks

  • Optical Code Division Multiple Access

  • Advanced modulation formats

  • Slow and fast light

  • Optical test and measurement techniques

  • Photonic integrated circuits

  • Non-telecom, i.e., sensors, medical imaging, etc.

Assoc. Prof. Kyriakos E. Zoiros
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Semiconductor optical amplifiers

  • applications

  • optoelectronic devices

  • active modules

  • fiber optics

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 171 KiB  
Editorial
Special Issue on Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers
by Kyriakos E. Zoiros
Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(7), 1185; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8071185 - 20 Jul 2018
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2725
Abstract
n/a Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)

Research

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11 pages, 3257 KiB  
Article
Application of Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) in Managing Chirp of Optical Code Division Multiple Access (OCDMA) Code Carriers in Temperature Affected Fibre Link
by Md Shakil Ahmed and Ivan Glesk
Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(5), 715; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8050715 - 03 May 2018
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3237
Abstract
Chromatic and temperature induced dispersion can both severely affect incoherent high data rate communications in optical fibre. This is certainly also true for incoherent optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) systems with multi-wavelength picosecond code carriers. Here, even a relatively small deviation from [...] Read more.
Chromatic and temperature induced dispersion can both severely affect incoherent high data rate communications in optical fibre. This is certainly also true for incoherent optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) systems with multi-wavelength picosecond code carriers. Here, even a relatively small deviation from a fully dispersion compensated transmission link can strongly impact the overall system performance, the number of simultaneous users, and the system cardinality due to the recovered OCDMA auto-correlation being strongly distorted, time-skewed, and having its full width at half maximum (FWHM) value changed. It is therefore imperative to have a simple tunable means for controlling fibre chromatic or temperature induced dispersion with high sub-picosecond accuracy. To help address this issue, we have investigated experimentally and by simulations the use of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) for its ability to control the chirp of the passing optical signal (OCDMA codes) and to exploit the SOA ability for dispersion management of a fibre link in an incoherent OCDMA system. Our investigation is done using a 19.5 km long fibre transmission link that is exposed to different temperatures (20 °C and 50 °C) using an environmental chamber. By placing the SOA on a transmission site and using it to manipulate the code carrier’s chirp via SOA bias adjustments, we have shown that this approach can successfully control the overall fibre link dispersion, and it can also mitigate the impact on the received OCDMA auto-correlation and its FWHM. The experimental data obtained are in a very good agreement with our simulation results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)
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17 pages, 6102 KiB  
Article
Theoretical Analysis of Directly Modulated Reflective Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Performance Enhancement by Microring Resonator-Based Notch Filtering
by Zoe V. Rizou and Kyriakos E. Zoiros
Appl. Sci. 2018, 8(2), 223; https://doi.org/10.3390/app8020223 - 01 Feb 2018
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4003
Abstract
We demonstrate the feasibility of using a single microring resonator (MRR) as optical notch filter for enabling the direct modulation of a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) at more than tripled data rate than possible with the RSOA alone. We conduct a thorough [...] Read more.
We demonstrate the feasibility of using a single microring resonator (MRR) as optical notch filter for enabling the direct modulation of a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) at more than tripled data rate than possible with the RSOA alone. We conduct a thorough simulation analysis to investigate and assess the impact of critical operating parameters on defined performance metrics, and we specify how the former must be selected so that the latter can become acceptable. By using an MRR of appropriate radius and detuning, the RSOA modulation bandwidth, which we explicitly quantify, can be extended to overcome the RSOA pattern-dependent performance limitations. Thus, the MRR makes the RSOA-encoded signal exhibit improved characteristics that can be exploited in practical RSOA direct modulation applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)
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2765 KiB  
Article
Fast Reconfigurable SOA-Based Wavelength Conversion of Advanced Modulation Format Data
by Yi Lin, Aravind P. Anthur, Sean P. Ó Dúill, Fan Liu, Yonglin Yu and Liam P. Barry
Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(10), 1033; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7101033 - 10 Oct 2017
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4616
Abstract
We theoretically analyze the phase noise transfer issue between the pump and the wavelength-converted idler for a nondegenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) scheme, as well as study the vector theory in nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), in order to design a polarization-insensitive wavelength conversion [...] Read more.
We theoretically analyze the phase noise transfer issue between the pump and the wavelength-converted idler for a nondegenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) scheme, as well as study the vector theory in nonlinear semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), in order to design a polarization-insensitive wavelength conversion system employing dual co-polarized pumps. A tunable sampled grating distributed Bragg reflector (SG-DBR) pump laser has been utilized to enable fast wavelength conversion in the sub-microsecond timescale. By using the detailed characterization of the SGDBR laser, we discuss the phase noise performance of the SGDBR laser. Finally, we present a reconfigurable SOA-based all-optical wavelength converter using the fast switching SGDBR tunable laser as one of the pump sources and experimentally study the wavelength conversion of the single polarization quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and polarization multiplexed (Pol-Mux) QPSK signals at 12.5-Gbaud. A wide tuning range (>10 nm) and less than 50 ns and 160 ns reconfiguration time have been achieved for the wavelength conversion system for QPSK and PM-QPSK signals, respectively. The performance under the switching environment after the required reconfiguration time is the same as the static case when the wavelengths are fixed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)
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2279 KiB  
Article
Bit- and Power-Loading—A Comparative Study on Maximizing the Capacity of RSOA Based Colorless DMT Transmitters
by Simon Arega Gebrewold, Romain Bonjour, Romain Brenot, David Hillerkuss and Juerg Leuthold
Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(10), 999; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7100999 - 27 Sep 2017
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4891
Abstract
We present a comparative study of the capacity increase brought by bit- and power-loading discrete multi-tone (DMT) modulation for low-cost colorless transmitters. Three interesting reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) based colorless transmitter configurations are compared: First, an amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectrum-sliced source; [...] Read more.
We present a comparative study of the capacity increase brought by bit- and power-loading discrete multi-tone (DMT) modulation for low-cost colorless transmitters. Three interesting reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) based colorless transmitter configurations are compared: First, an amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectrum-sliced source; second, a self-seeded RSOA fiber cavity laser (FCL) and third, an externally seeded RSOA. With bit- and power-loaded DMT, we report record high line rates of 6.25, 20.1 and 30.7 Gbit/s and line rates of 4.17, 10.1 and 24.5 Gbit/s in a back-to-back and in a 25 km nonzero dispersion shifted fiber (NZDSF) transmission experiments for the three transmitter configurations, respectively. In all the experiments, BER (bit error ratios) below an FEC (forward error correction) limit of 7.5 × 10−3 were achieved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)
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3050 KiB  
Article
Estimation of the Performance Improvement of Pre-Amplified PAM4 Systems When Using Multi-Section Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers
by Seán P. Ó Dúill, Pascal Landais and Liam P. Barry
Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(9), 908; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7090908 - 05 Sep 2017
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5991
Abstract
Multi-section semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) have been shown to have superior noise and linearity performance compared with single section SOAs. We show how to create a simplified numerical model for multi-section SOAs that is suitable for optical communication system simulations and use that [...] Read more.
Multi-section semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) have been shown to have superior noise and linearity performance compared with single section SOAs. We show how to create a simplified numerical model for multi-section SOAs that is suitable for optical communication system simulations and use that model to investigate the amplification performance of 56 Gbit/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation signals. We find that a multi-section SOA could provide an improvement in input power dynamic range exceeding 3 dB compared to a single section SOA that has the same unsaturated gain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)
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6358 KiB  
Article
SOA Based Photonic Integrated WDM Cross-Connects for Optical Metro-Access Networks
by Nicola Calabretta, Wang Miao, Ketemaw Mekonnen and Kristif Prifti
Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(9), 865; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7090865 - 23 Aug 2017
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 6033
Abstract
We present a novel optical metro node architecture that exploits the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical cross-connect nodes for interconnecting network elements, as well as computing and storage resources. The photonic WDM cross-connect node based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) allows switching data [...] Read more.
We present a novel optical metro node architecture that exploits the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical cross-connect nodes for interconnecting network elements, as well as computing and storage resources. The photonic WDM cross-connect node based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) allows switching data signals in wavelength, space, and time for fully exploiting statistical multiplexing. The advantages of using an SOA to realize the WDM cross-connect switch in terms of transparency, switching speed, photonic integrated amplification for loss-less operation, and gain equalization are verified experimentally. The experimental assessment of a 4 × 4 photonic integrated WDM cross-connect confirmed the capability of the cross-connect chip to switch the WDM signal in space and wavelength. Experimental results show lossless operation, low cross-talk <−30 dB, and dynamically switch within few nanoseconds. Moreover, the operation of the cross-connect switch with multiple WDM channels and diverse modulation formats is also investigated and reported. Error-free operation with less than a 2 dB power penalty for a single channel, as well as WDM input operation, has been measured for multiple 10/20/40 Gb/s NRZ-OOK, 20 Gb/s PAM4, and data-rate adaptive DMT traffic. Compensation of the losses indicates that the modular architecture could scale to a larger number of ports. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)
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2314 KiB  
Article
Comparison of Basic Notch Filters for Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Pattern Effect Mitigation
by Zoe V. Rizou, Kyriakos E. Zoiros and Antonios Hatziefremidis
Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(8), 783; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7080783 - 02 Aug 2017
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4414
Abstract
We conduct a thorough comparison of two basic notch filters employed to mitigate the pattern effect that manifests when semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) serve linear amplification purposes. The filters are implemented using as the building architecture the optical delay interferometer (ODI) and the [...] Read more.
We conduct a thorough comparison of two basic notch filters employed to mitigate the pattern effect that manifests when semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) serve linear amplification purposes. The filters are implemented using as the building architecture the optical delay interferometer (ODI) and the microring resonator (MRR). We formulate and follow a rational procedure, which involves identifying and applying the appropriate conditions for the filters’ spectral response slope related to the SOA pattern effect suppression mechanism. We thus extract the values of the free spectral range and detuning of each filter, which allow one to equivocally realize the pursued comparison. We define suitable performance metrics and obtain simulation results for each filter. The quantitative comparison reveals that most employed metrics are better with the MRR than with the ODI. Although the difference in performance is small, it is sufficient to justify considering also using the MRR for the intended purpose. Finally, we concisely discuss practical implementation issues of these notch filters and further make a qualitative comparison between them in terms of their inherent advantages and disadvantages. This discussion reveals that each scheme has distinct features that render it appropriate for supporting SOA direct signal amplification applications with a suppressed pattern effect. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)
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7565 KiB  
Article
Integrated Optical Content Addressable Memories (CAM) and Optical Random Access Memories (RAM) for Ultra-Fast Address Look-Up Operations
by Christos Vagionas, Pavlos Maniotis, Stelios Pitris, Amalia Miliou and Nikos Pleros
Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(7), 700; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7070700 - 07 Jul 2017
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 6856
Abstract
Electronic Content Addressable Memories (CAM) implement Address Look-Up (AL) table functionalities of network routers; however, they typically operate in the MHz regime, turning AL into a critical network bottleneck. In this communication, we demonstrate the first steps towards developing optical CAM alternatives to [...] Read more.
Electronic Content Addressable Memories (CAM) implement Address Look-Up (AL) table functionalities of network routers; however, they typically operate in the MHz regime, turning AL into a critical network bottleneck. In this communication, we demonstrate the first steps towards developing optical CAM alternatives to enable a re-engineering of AL memories. Firstly, we report on the photonic integration of Semiconductor Optical Amplifier-Mach Zehnder Interferometer (SOA-MZI)-based optical Flip-Flop and Random Access Memories on a monolithic InP platform, capable of storing the binary prefix-address data-bits and the outgoing port information for next hop routing, respectively. Subsequently the first optical Binary CAM cell (B-CAM) is experimentally demonstrated, comprising an InP Flip-Flop and a SOA-MZI Exclusive OR (XOR) gate for fast search operations through an XOR-based bit comparison, yielding an error-free 10 Gb/s operation. This is later extended via physical layer simulations in an optical Ternary-CAM (T-CAM) cell and a 4-bit Matchline (ML) configuration, supporting a third state of the “logical X” value towards wildcard bits of network subnet masks. The proposed functional CAM and Random Access Memories (RAM) sub-circuits may facilitate light-based Address Look-Up tables supporting search operations at 10 Gb/s and beyond, paving the way towards minimizing the disparity with the frantic optical transmission linerates, and fast re-configurability through multiple simultaneous Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) memory access requests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)
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Review

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3606 KiB  
Review
Towards Large-Scale Fast Reprogrammable SOA-Based Photonic Integrated Switch Circuits
by Ripalta Stabile
Appl. Sci. 2017, 7(9), 920; https://doi.org/10.3390/app7090920 - 07 Sep 2017
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4361
Abstract
Due to the exponentially increasing connectivity and bandwidth demand from the Internet, the most advanced examples of medium-scale fast reconfigurable photonic integrated switch circuits are offered by research carried out for data- and computer-communication applications, where network flexibility at a high speed and [...] Read more.
Due to the exponentially increasing connectivity and bandwidth demand from the Internet, the most advanced examples of medium-scale fast reconfigurable photonic integrated switch circuits are offered by research carried out for data- and computer-communication applications, where network flexibility at a high speed and high connectivity are provided to suit network demand. Recently we have prototyped optical switching circuits using monolithic integration technology with up to several hundreds of integrated optical components per chip for high connectivity. In this paper, the current status of fast reconfigurable medium-scale indium phosphide (InP) integrated photonic switch matrices based on the use of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) gates is reviewed, focusing on broadband and cross-connecting monolithic implementations, granting a connectivity of up to sixteen input ports, sixteen output ports, and sixty-four channels, respectively. The opportunities for increasing connectivity, enabling nanosecond order reconfigurability, and introducing distributed optical power monitoring at the physical layer are highlighted. Complementary architecture based on resonant switching elements on the same material platform are also discussed for power efficient switching. Performance projections related to the physical layer are presented and strategies for improvements are discussed in view of opening a route towards large-scale power efficient fast reprogrammable photonic integrated switching circuits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers)
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