Experimental Study on Wavelength Tunability of All-Optical Flip-Flop Based on Multimode-Interference Bistable Laser Diode

We demonstrate a wavelength-tunable all-optical flip-flop (AOFF) based on a multimode-interference (MMI) bistable laser diode (BLD) with distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). The wavelength tuning can be achieved by the band-filling effect and the free-carrier plasma effect with carrier injections to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: K. Takeda, M. Takenaka, T. Tanemura, Y. Nakano
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2009-01-01
Series:IEEE Photonics Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5089469/
Description
Summary:We demonstrate a wavelength-tunable all-optical flip-flop (AOFF) based on a multimode-interference (MMI) bistable laser diode (BLD) with distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). The wavelength tuning can be achieved by the band-filling effect and the free-carrier plasma effect with carrier injections to the DBRs. The tuning range of 3.1 nm will enable flexible and reconfigurable design of future photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Since the DBR-MMI-BLD does not require cleaved facets for its operation, multiple AOFFs can be monolithically integrated on a single PIC. In addition, the device has a large operable bandwidth of wider than 34 nm, even when we tune the lasing wavelength. A dynamic flip-flop operation is also demonstrated with rising and falling times of faster than 280 and 228 ps, respectively. No waveform distortion is observed, even when we tune the lasing wavelength.
ISSN:1943-0655