Signal Generation By Optical Mixing In Feedbacked Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

The gain-crossed property of semiconductor optical amplifiers is experimentally investigated. Due to saturation, the amplifier gain mechanism is altered, leading to an optical mixing effect that causes the frequency components of optical signals to be mutually exchanged. It was observed that optically feed-backed saturated amplifiers could achieve similar performance as that of cascaded amplifiers, offering up to 10 dB gain to two 8-nm-appart modulated optical carriers. For carriers modulated at 250 MHz and 400 MHz, the optical mixing effect produced up and down-converted electronic components at 150 and 650 MHz, respectively.111114Woodward, S.L., Ariyavisitakul, S., Transporting CDMA signals over an analog optical link (1999) IEEE Trans. Vehic. Technol., 48 (4), pp. 1033-1038Ohmoto, R., Ohtsuka, H., Ichikawa, H., Fiber-optic microcell radio systems with spectrum delivery scheme (1993) IEEE Trans. Vehic. Technol., 11 (7), pp. 1108-1117Bowers, J.E., Chipalosky, A.C., Boodaghians, S., Long-distance fiber-optic transmission of c-band microwave signals to and from a satellite antenna (1987) IEEE J. Lightwave Technol., 5 (12), pp. 1733-1741Olshansky, R., Lanzisera, V., Hill, P., Subcarrier multiplexed lightwave systems for broad-band distribution (1989) IEEE J. Lightwave Technol., 7 (9), pp. 1329-1342Ramos, R.T., Seeds, A.J., Fast heterodyne optical phase-lock loop using double quantum well laser diodes (1992) Electron. Lett., 28 (1), pp. 82-83Walton, C., Bordonalli, A.C., Seeds, A.J., High performance heterodyne optical injection phase-lock loop using wide linewidth semiconductor lasers (1998) IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 10 (3), pp. 427-429Goldberg, L., Taylor, H.F., Weller, J.F., FM sideband injection locking of diode lasers (1982) Electron. Lett., 18 (23), pp. 1019-1020Bordonalli, A.C., Cai, B., Seeds, A.J., Williams, P.J., Generation of microwave signals by active mode locking in a gain bandwidth restricted laser structure (1996) IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 8 (1), pp. 151-153Shieh, W., Yao, S.X., Lutes, G., Maleki, L., An all-optical microwave mixer with gain IEEE/OSA Optical Fiber Conference, Dallas, Texas, 1997, pp. 263-264Bordonalli, A.C., Neto, A.D., Lima, C.R., Conforti, E., Microwave signal generation by mixing of modulated optical carriers in saturated semiconductor optical amplifiers IEEE/SBMO International Microwave and Optoelectronics Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1999, pp. 417-42