Dual-pump wave mixing in semiconductor optical amplifiers: performance enhancement with long amplifiers

We demonstrate experimentally the improvement of the performance of the dual pump wave mixing scheme in semiconductor optical amplifiers, using long amplifier chips and high optical pump powers. The optical amplifiers used in the experiment had a ridge waveguide structure with bulk active layer and antireflective-coated angled facets. Measurements of the conversion efficiency and SBR as a function of wavelength shift are presented for a wavelength shift of more than 40 nm. The above measurements are carried out for three amplifier lengths (500 micrometers , 1000 micrometers , and 1500 micrometers ) and for different levels of the optical power of the two pumps. It will be shown that an increase in the amplifier length from 500 micrometers to 1500 micrometers results to an increase of more than 25 dB for the efficiency and more than 20 dB for the SBR. This improvement combined with the inherent advantages of the dual pump scheme (almost constant SBR and high efficiency for large wavelength shifts) results in a highly performing wavelength converter/phase conjugator, suitable for many applications.

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