Fully tunable 360° microwave photonic phase shifter based on a single semiconductor optical amplifier

This paper was published in OPTICS EXPRESS and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.017421. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law[EN] A fully tunable microwave photonic phase shifter involving a single semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is proposed and demonstrated. 360° microwave phase shift has been achieved by tuning the carrier wavelength and the optical input power injected in an SOA while properly profiting from the dispersion feature of a conveniently designed notch filter. It is shown that the optical filter can be advantageously employed to switch between positive and negative microwave phase shifts. Numerical calculations corroborate the experimental results showing an excellent agreement. © 2011 Optical Society of America.The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) project GOSPEL; the Generalitat Valenciana through the Microwave Photonics research Excellency award programme GVA PROMETEO 2008/092 and also the Plan Nacional I + D TEC2008-06145.Sancho Durá, J.; Lloret Soler, JA.; Gasulla Mestre, I.; Sales Maicas, S.; Capmany Francoy, J. (2011). Fully tunable 360° microwave photonic phase shifter based on a single semiconductor optical amplifier. Optics Express. 19(18):17421-17426. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.017421S17421174261918Boyd, R. W., & Gauthier, D. J. (2009). Controlling the Velocity of Light Pulses. Science, 326(5956), 1074-1077. doi:10.1126/science.1170885Tucker, R. S., Pei-Cheng Ku, & Chang-Hasnain, C. J. (2005). Slow-light optical buffers: capabilities and fundamental limitations. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 23(12), 4046-4066. doi:10.1109/jlt.2005.853125Capmany, J., & Novak, D. (2007). Microwave photonics combines two worlds. Nature Photonics, 1(6), 319-330. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2007.89Gehring, G. M., Boyd, R. W., Gaeta, A. L., Gauthier, D. J., & Willner, A. E. (2008). Fiber-Based Slow-Light Technologies. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 26(23), 3752-3762. doi:10.1109/jlt.2008.2004883Baba, T. (2008). Slow light in photonic crystals. Nature Photonics, 2(8), 465-473. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.146Chang-Hasnain, C. J., & Chuang, S. L. (2006). Slow and Fast Light in Semiconductor Quantum-Well and Quantum-Dot Devices. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 24(12), 4642-4654. doi:10.1109/jlt.2006.885767Agrawal, G. P. (1988). Population pulsations and nondegenerate four-wave mixing in semiconductor lasers and amplifiers. Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 5(1), 147. doi:10.1364/josab.5.000147Su, H., Kondratko, P., & Chuang, S. L. (2006). Variable optical delay using population oscillation and four-wave-mixing in semiconductor optical amplifiers. Optics Express, 14(11), 4800. doi:10.1364/oe.14.004800Xue, W., Chen, Y., Öhman, F., Sales, S., & Mørk, J. (2008). Enhancing light slow-down in semiconductor optical amplifiers by optical filtering. Optics Letters, 33(10), 1084. doi:10.1364/ol.33.001084Xue, W., Sales, S., Capmany, J., & Mørk, J. (2010). Wideband 360° microwave photonic phase shifter based on slow light in semiconductor optical amplifiers. Optics Express, 18(6), 6156. doi:10.1364/oe.18.006156Xue, W., Chen, Y., Öhman, F., & Mørk, J. (2009). The role of input chirp on phase shifters based on slow and fast light effects in semiconductor optical amplifiers. Optics Express, 17(3), 1404. doi:10.1364/oe.17.001404Ó Dúill, S., Shumakher, E., & Eisenstein, G. (2010). The role of optical filtering in microwave phase shifting. Optics Letters, 35(13), 2278. doi:10.1364/ol.35.002278Lloret, J., Ramos, F., Weiqi Xue, Sancho, J., Gasulla, I., Sales, S., … Capmany, J. (2011). The Influence of Optical Filtering on the Noise Performance of Microwave Photonic Phase Shifters Based on SOAs. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 29(12), 1746-1752. doi:10.1109/jlt.2011.213583