Vertical-Cavity Amplifying Modulator at 1.3 m

Abstract—The modulation/switching properties of a vertical-cavity semiconductor optical amplifier operating at 1.3 m wave-length are investigated. The device was optically pumped and op-erated in reflection mode. A 150-mV (100 mA) modulation of the drive to the pump source produced a 7-dB modulation of the pump power, which produced a 35-dB modulation in the output signal. The maximum extinction ratio was 35 dB, and limited by device heating. Frequency response measurements revealed a modulation bandwidth of 1.8 GHz when the amplifier was saturated. This en-abled 2.5-Gb/s modulation of a 10 dBm input signal with 5.5-dB fiber-to-fiber gain. Index Terms—Laser amplifiers, modulation, optical modulation, optical pumping, optical switches, semiconductor optical ampli-fiers. I