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Low-energy optical switching of semiconductor laser amplifiers

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Abstract

Regenerative InGaAsP/lnP laser amplifiers are fast Fabry-Perot bistable switches when operated with a few microwatts of optical input.1 Experimental demonstration of fast switching is shown in Fig. 1. The switch-off time has been independently measured to be ~0.5 ns.2 This time is determined by the speed of gain recovery after depletion of carriers caused by the injected optical input signal. Gain recovery occurs on a time scale of the order of the spontaneous carrier recombination time. The switching dynamics in these devices is modeled using a modified Van der Pol equation with an injected signal and the rate equation describing carrier density. A similar formalism has been used to model injection locking in diode lasers.3 The amplifier gain is described by including a term linear in carrier density as a correction to the small-signal gain and by assuming that the resonant cavity frequency is also a linear function of carrier density. Figure 2(b) shows a typical calculated output pulse resulting from a Gaussian input pulse [Fig. 2(a)].

© 1986 Optical Society of America

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