SiGeC Waveguide for All-Optical Data Switching
Journal
ACS Photonics
Journal Volume
5
Journal Issue
6
Pages
2251-2260
Date Issued
2018
Author(s)
Huang, B.-J.
Tsai, C.-T.
Lin, Y.-H.
Cheng, C.-H.
Wang, H.-Y.
Chi, Y.-C.
Chang, P.-H.
Wu, C.-I.
Abstract
The SiGeC waveguide based ultrafast all-optical switching by using the cross-absorption modulation (XAM) effect is demonstrated to perform the wavelength conversion and format inversion of a pulsed return-to-zero on–off keying (PRZ-OOK) data stream. Under the intensively optical data-bit illumination as the pump, the two-photon absorption (TPA) effect is observed to induce free carriers in the SiGeC for absorbing the power of the probe beam. This free-carrier absorption (FCA) procedure inversely modulates the probe beam to cause the XAM switching via the intensively pumping data-bit-induced TPA/FCA process. With employing the Ge content into the SiC matrix, the picosecond free-carrier lifetime of the SiGeC can be obtained by further degrading the injected pumping energy under all-optical switching operation. With reducing the pumping energy from 0.5 nJ to 22 pJ, the effective response time of the all-optical XAM switching successfully shortens from 120 to 2 ps. Experiments declare that even a relatively low pumping energy can result in a sufficiently large XAM to perform the ultrafast all-optical switching in the SiGeC waveguide based all-optical modulator, providing the all-optical data format inversion and broadband wavelength conversion of the PRZ-OOK data stream at 1.2–6.0 Gbit/s.
SDGs
Type
journal article