Use of semiconductor optical amplifiers in signal processing applications

We describe a 42.6 Gbit/s all-optical pattern recognition system which uses semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). A circuit with three SOA-based logic gates is used to identify the presence of specific port numbers in an optical packet header.

All-optical signal processing using semiconductor optical amplifiers for next generation optical networks

This thesis details an experimental and simulation investigation of some novel all-optical signal processing techniques for future optical communication networks. These all-optical techniques include modulation format conversion, phase discrimination and clock recovery. The methods detailed in this thesis use the nonlinearities associated with semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) to manipulate signals in the optical domain. Chapter 1 provides an introduction into the work detailed in this thesis, discusses the increased demand for capacity in today’s optical fibre networks and finally explains why all-optical signal processing may be of interest for future optical networks. Chapter 2 discusses the relevant background information required to fully understand the all-optical techniques demonstrated in this thesis. Chapter 3 details some pump-probe measurement techniques used to calculate the gain and phase recovery times of a long SOA. A remarkably fast gain recovery is observed and the wavelength dependent nature of this recovery is investigated. Chapter 4 discusses the experimental demonstration of an all-optical modulation conversion technique which can convert on-off- keyed data into either duobinary or alternative mark inversion. In Chapter 5 a novel phase sensitive frequency conversion scheme capable of extracting the two orthogonal components of a quadrature phase modulated signal into two separate frequencies is demonstrated. Chapter 6 investigates a novel all-optical clock recovery technique for phase modulated optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing superchannels and finally Chapter 7 provides a brief conclusion.

Novel all-optical on-off-keyed to alternate-mark-inversion converter

We numerically investigate a novel 40 Gbps OOK to AMI all-optical modulation format converter employing an SOA-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer.  We demonstrate operation with a 27-1 PRBS and explain the phase modulation's relationship with patterning.

High speed nonlinear optical components for next-generation optical communications

Electronic signal processing systems currently employed at core internet routers require huge amounts of power to operate and they may be unable to continue to satisfy consumer demand for more bandwidth without an inordinate increase in cost, size and/or energy consumption. Optical signal processing techniques may be deployed in next-generation optical networks for simple tasks such as wavelength conversion, demultiplexing and format conversion at high speed (≥100Gb.s-1) to alleviate the pressure on existing core router infrastructure. To implement optical signal processing functionalities, it is necessary to exploit the nonlinear optical properties of suitable materials such as III-V semiconductor compounds, silicon, periodically-poled lithium niobate (PPLN), highly nonlinear fibre (HNLF) or chalcogenide glasses. However, nonlinear optical (NLO) components such as semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), electroabsorption modulators (EAMs) and silicon nanowires are the most promising candidates as all-optical switching elements vis-à-vis ease of integration, device footprint and energy consumption. This PhD thesis presents the amplitude and phase dynamics in a range of device configurations containing SOAs, EAMs and/or silicon nanowires to support the design of all optical switching elements for deployment in next-generation optical networks. Time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy using pulses with a pulse width of 3ps from mode-locked laser sources was utilized to accurately measure the carrier dynamics in the device(s) under test. The research work into four main topics: (a) a long SOA, (b) the concatenated SOA-EAMSOA (CSES) configuration, (c) silicon nanowires embedded in SU8 polymer and (d) a custom epitaxy design EAM with fast carrier sweepout dynamics. The principal aim was to identify the optimum operation conditions for each of these NLO device configurations to enhance their switching capability and to assess their potential for various optical signal processing functionalities. All of the NLO device configurations investigated in this thesis are compact and suitable for monolithic and/or hybrid integration.

SDN enabled dynamically reconfigurable high capacity optical access architecture for converged services

Dynamically reconfigurable time-division multiplexing (TDM) dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) long-reach passive optical networks (PONs) can support the reduction of nodes and network interfaces by enabling a fully meshed flat optical core. In this paper we demonstrate the flexibility of the TDM-DWDM PON architecture, which can enable the convergence of multiple service types on a single physical layer. Heterogeneous services and modulation formats, i.e. residential 10G PON channels, business 100G dedicated channel and wireless fronthaul, are demonstrated co-existing on the same long reach TDM-DWDM PON system, with up to 100km reach, 512 users and emulated system load of 40 channels, employing amplifier nodes with either erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) or semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). For the first time end-to-end software defined networking (SDN) management of the access and core network elements is also implemented and integrated with the PON physical layer in order to demonstrate two service use cases: a fast protection mechanism with end-to-end service restoration in the case of a primary link failure; and dynamic wavelength allocation (DWA) in response to an increased traffic demand.