Topic
Semiconductor optical gain
About: Semiconductor optical gain is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5997 publications have been published within this topic receiving 96505 citations.
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TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that the pattern effect inherent in semiconductor optical amplifiers can be eliminated by using self-assembled quantum dots in the active region, which can respond as fast as < 3 ps due to intra-dot carrier relaxation, enabling operation up to 160 Gbit/s.
Abstract: It is experimentally shown that the pattern effect inherent in semiconductor optical amplifiers can be eliminated by using self-assembled quantum dots in the active region. This property comes from the ultrafast response of the dominant gain nonlinearity, or spectral-hole burning, which can respond as fast as < 3 ps due to intra-dot carrier relaxation, thereby enabling operation up to 160 Gbit/s.
89 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a computer simulator of semiconductor optical amplifiers is presented, where the nonlinear input-output response of the device is characterized in terms of a complex gain, representing the accumulated gain and wavevector change of the propagating field across the active waveguide.
Abstract: We present a computer simulator of semiconductor optical amplifiers. The nonlinear input-output response of the device is characterized in terms of a complex gain, representing the accumulated gain and wavevector change of the propagating field across the active waveguide. We account for the gain saturation induced by stimulated recombination and by the perturbation of the carrier quasi-equilibrium distribution within the bands. A rigorous elimination of the spatial coordinate allows us to reduce the description of the amplifier dynamics to the solution of a set of ordinary differential equation for the complex gain. If the waveguide internal loss is negligible, the spatial inhomogeneity of the complex gain is implicitly yet exactly taken into account by the reduced model. The accuracy of the reduced model is the same for models based on the direct solution of the set of partial differential equations describing the interaction between the optical field and the active semiconductor waveguide, but the model is computationally much simpler. To preserve the input-output characteristics of the model, we include the amplified spontaneous emission noise in the device description by an equivalent signal applied to the device input and amplified by the saturated gain. At the expense of a minor increase of the program complexity, the waveguide internal loss may also be included. We report on the comparison between the output of the simulator and the results of four-wave mixing experiments in various pump-signal configurations. Good agreement is obtained.
89 citations
TL;DR: These pulses represent, to the authors' knowledge, the highest peak power generated from an all semiconductor ultrafast laser system.
Abstract: The concept of eXtreme Chirped Pulse Amplification (X-CPA) is introduced as a novel method to overcome the energy storage limit of semiconductor optical amplifiers in ultrashort pulse amplification. A colliding pulse mode-locked semiconductor laser is developed as a master oscillator and generates 600fs pulses with 6nm bandwidth at 975nm. Using a highly dispersive chirped fiber Bragg grating (1600ps/nm) as an extreme pulse stretcher and compressor, we demonstrate ~16,000 times extreme chirped pulse amplification and recompression generating optical pulses of 590fs with 1.4kW of peak power. These pulses represent, to our knowledge, the highest peak power generated from an all semiconductor ultrafast laser system.
88 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors demonstrated tunable, locked output from 9.5 to 17.1 GHz with a linewidth below the 1-kHz resolution limit of the measurement apparatus.
Abstract: Semiconductor lasers subjected to near-resonant external optical injection can exhibit strong oscillations of the output power due to a dynamic instability in the coupling of the gain medium to the circulating optical field. The oscillation frequency depends on the operating point of the injected laser and the strength and frequency offset of the injected optical signal. Adding a reference current modulation to the dc-bias current can induce the oscillation frequency of the optical power to become locked to the reference. Tunable, locked output from 9.5 to 17.1 GHz is demonstrated, with a linewidth below the 1-kHz resolution limit of the measurement apparatus.
88 citations
TL;DR: A summary of the atomic, plasma and propagation physics of x-ray laser created in this way can be found in this article, where the optical laser is focused into a line on a solid target and the xray laser action occurs by amplification along the line with sufficiently high gain that mirrors are not needed.
Abstract: Soft x-ray lasers in the 3.5–50 nm wavelength range have been developed in many laboratories. The shortest wavelengths and highest output irradiances have been produced using plasmas created by optical lasers as the lasing medium. The optical laser is focused into a line on a solid target and the x-ray laser action occurs by amplification along the line with sufficiently high gain that mirrors are not needed. Population inversions are produced by free-electron collisions exciting bound electrons into metastable levels in neon- and nickel-like ions. This topical review presents a summary of the atomic, plasma and propagation physics of x-ray lasers created in this way.
88 citations