Slow and fast light effects in semiconductor waveguides for applications in microwave photonics

We review the theory of slow and fast light effects due to coherent population oscillations in semiconductor waveguides, and potential applications of these effects in microwave photonic systems as RF phase shifters. In order to satisfy the application requirement of 360° RF phase shift at different microwave or millimeter-wave frequency bands, we present several schemes to increase the achievable RF phase shift by enhancing light slow-down or speed-up. These schemes include integrating gain and absorption sections, optical filtering and the exploitation of the initial chirp effects. As a real application in microwave photonics, a widely tunable microwave photonic notch filter with 100% fractional tuning range is also proposed and demonstrated.

[1]  Robert W. Boyd,et al.  Superluminal and Slow Light Propagation in a Room-Temperature Solid , 2003, Science.

[2]  J. Mork,et al.  Widely Tunable Microwave Photonic Notch Filter Based on Slow and Fast Light Effects , 2009, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[3]  S. Harris,et al.  Light speed reduction to 17 metres per second in an ultracold atomic gas , 1999, Nature.

[4]  Kresten Yvind,et al.  Slow light in a semiconductor waveguide at gigahertz frequencies. , 2005, Optics express.

[5]  F. Koyama,et al.  Frequency chirping in external modulators , 1988 .

[6]  Jesper Mørk,et al.  The role of input chirp on phase shifters based on slow and fast light effects in semiconductor optical amplifiers. , 2009, Optics express.

[7]  Shun Lien Chuang,et al.  Slow and Fast Light in Semiconductor Quantum-Well and Quantum-Dot Devices , 2006, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[8]  Kresten Yvind,et al.  Slow and fast light: Controlling the speed of light using semiconductor waveguides , 2009 .

[9]  Jesper Mørk,et al.  Enhancing light slow-down in semiconductor optical amplifiers by optical filtering. , 2008, Optics letters.

[10]  C. Chang-Hasnain,et al.  Slow-light in semiconductor quantum wells , 2004, InternationalQuantum Electronics Conference, 2004. (IQEC)..

[11]  Irwin L. Newberg,et al.  The first demonstration of an optically steered microwave phased array antenna using true-time-delay , 1991 .

[12]  J. Mork,et al.  Slow Light in a Semiconductor Waveguide for True-Time Delay Applications in Microwave Photonics , 2007, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[13]  J. Mork,et al.  Controlling Microwave Signals by Means of Slow and Fast Light Effects in SOA-EA Structures , 2007, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[14]  Hui Su,et al.  Variable optical delay using population oscillation and four-wave-mixing in semiconductor optical amplifiers. , 2006, Optics express.

[15]  J. Capmany,et al.  Demonstration of incoherent microwave photonic filters with all-optical complex coefficients , 2006, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[16]  J. Mørk,et al.  Wave mixing in semiconductor laser amplifiers due to carrier heating and spectral-hole burning , 1994 .

[17]  J. Mørk,et al.  Voltage-controlled slow light in an integrated semiconductor structure with net gain. , 2006, Optics express.

[18]  J. Capmany,et al.  Discrete-time optical Processing of microwave signals , 2005, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[19]  Dalma Novak,et al.  Overcoming chromatic-dispersion effects in fiber-wireless systems incorporating external modulators , 1997 .

[20]  Large Microwave Phase Shift and Small Distortion in an Integrated Waveguide Device , 2007 .

[21]  C. Chang-Hasnain,et al.  Slow and superluminal light in semiconductor optical amplifiers , 2005 .

[22]  P. Kondratko,et al.  Slow-to-fast light using absorption to gain switching in quantum-well semiconductor optical amplifier. , 2007, Optics express.

[23]  J. Mork,et al.  Theory of Optical-Filtering Enhanced Slow and Fast Light Effects in Semiconductor Optical Waveguides , 2008, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[24]  H. Hamann,et al.  Active control of slow light on a chip with photonic crystal waveguides , 2005, Nature.

[25]  Chirp Dependence of Filter Assisted Slow and Fast Light Effects in Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers , 2008 .

[26]  C. Chang-Hasnain,et al.  Delay limit of slow light in semiconductor optical amplifiers , 2006, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[27]  B. Ortega,et al.  A tutorial on microwave photonic filters , 2006, Journal of Lightwave Technology.