Hundred-picoseconds electro-optical switching with semiconductor optical amplifiers using multi-impulse step injection current

Abstract

An ultrafast electro-optical amplified switch based on chip-on-carrier semiconductor optical amplifier with high optical contrast (33 dB) is presented. Switching times up to 115 ps with small overshoot were achieved by using the multi-impulse step injected current technique. These results are compared with previous preimpulse step injected current technique, and achieve a reduction of the inherent, post switching gain fluctuations without worsening the switching times. In addition, pulse formats for controlling such a kind of electro-optical switches are numerically analyzed and compared with experiments.