OPTICAL AMPLIFICATION BASED ON SLOW LIGHT EFFECTS IN THE PHOTONIC CRYSTAL WAVEGUIDE

Optical amplification is demonstrated in a slab photonic crystal waveguide (PCW). Nonlinear dispersive gain FDTD and traveling-wave rate equation method (TWRE) are used to design a photonic crystal semiconductor optical amplifier (PC-SOA). Optical amplification based on slow light of PCW can be obtained not only in theory but also in experiment. In the C band, the gain of more than 10 dB is obtained in a 20-mu m long PC-SOA sample. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:2997-3001, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.2641