T.L. Koch

A wavelength-division multiplexed passive optical network with cost-shared components

We demonstrate a passive optical network (PON), based on a wavelength-division multiplexing router, with modulators (instead of lasers) at the subscriber terminals. A single, cost-shared, tunable laser is time-division multiplexed to provide bidirectional switched WDM services for N subscribers with independent formats and bit-rates for each. Simultaneous support of telephony and compressed digital video are presented in which RF subcarrier multiplexing is used to provide service segregation and resolve upstream packet contention.<<ETX>>

Semiconductor photonic integrated circuits

Semiconductor photonic integrated circuits (PICs) refer to that subset of optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) which focus primarily on the monolithic integration of optically interconnected guided-wave optoelectronic devices. The principal motivation for PIC research is the expected cost reduction and packaging robustness associated with replacing individually aligned, single-mode optical connections between discrete optoelectronic devices with lithographically produced integrated waveguides. This field has recently seen significant advances resulting from improved III-V epitaxial crystal growth and related processing techniques. A discussion is presented of the design and fabrication issues, illustrated by a number of recently demonstrated InP-based PICs. >

A wideband all-optical WDM network

We describe some of the results of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) sponsored Consortium on Wideband All-Optical Networks in developing architectures, technology components, and applications for the realization of scaleable, wideband, and transparent optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks. Our architecture addresses all-optical transport over the wide, metropolitan, and local areas. It utilizes wavelength partitioning, routing, and active multiwavelength cross-connect switches to achieve a network that is scaleable in the number of users, data rates, and geographic span. The network supports two services which can be point-to-multipoint or multipoint-to-multipoint simplex or duplex connections. The A service is a transparent physically circuit-switched service and the B-service is a scheduled time-slotted circuit which is transparent within its time slots. We have developed a 20-channel local and metropolitan area WDM testbed deployed in the Boston area, now undergoing characterization and experimental applications.

Semiconductor lasers for coherent optical fiber communications

The current status of semiconductor lasers used in coherent optical fiber communications is reviewed for nonexperts in the field. The issues of spectral purity, tuning, modulation, and advanced fabrication methods for photonic integration are discussed, with examples drawn from current experimental devices. >

Tapered waveguide InGaAs/InGaAsP multiple-quantum-well lasers

The use of ultrathin etch-stop techniques to expand the vertical optical mode size adiabatically in 1.5- mu m InGaAs/InGaAsP MQW lasers using a tapered-core passive intracavity waveguide structure is discussed. 30% differential quantum efficiency out the tapered facet, far-field FWHM of approximately 12 degrees and a butt-coupling efficiency into a cleaved fiber of -4.2 dB, with -1-dB alignment tolerances of approximately +or-3 mu m, were achieved.<<ETX>>

Dispersion compensation by active predistorted signal synthesis

Techniques for the synthesis of an optical signal predistorted to compensate for fiber dispersion are discussed theoretically. A scheme for very high bit rate (>10 Gbit/s) time-division-multiplexed transmission is proposed which neither requires extremely short pulse sources nor suffers from their inherent dispersion limitations. The rudimentary aspects of the techniques have been verified experimentally by demonstrating both enhanced and degraded transmission of a 4-GHz modulated signal at 1.55 μm over 10-30 km of optical fiber.

Vertically grating-coupled ARROW structures for III--V integrated optics

We propose a new all-planar technology scheme for coupling active gain or absorbing regions to low-propagation-loss, large-mode passive regions using monolithic waveguides vertically directionally coupled with a grating in an antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) geometry. Basic aspects of the concept have been demonstrated by laser action in an InGaAsP/InP ARROW grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy and optically pumped by a Nd:YAG laser. This is the first demonstration of interlayer vertical directional grating coupling in III-V waveguides.

Dynamic operation of a three-port, integrated Mach-Zehnder wavelength converter

Wavelength conversion using semiconductor optical amplifiers monolithically integrated in a three-part Mach-Zehnder configuration is achieved for data rates of 1 and 2.5 Gb/s. The three-port configuration allows efficient use of pump signal power, as well as counter-propagation of pump and converted signals, eliminating the need for a filter. Operation of the device at 5 Gb/s in a two-port configuration is also achieved. Dynamic extinction ratios larger than 13 dB, as well as both data-inverting and noninverting operation are demonstrated.<<ETX>>

8-wavelength DBR laser array fabricated with a single-step Bragg grating printing technique

An 8-wavelength distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) array for narrow channel wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) has been fabricated with a new technique for printing first-order Bragg gratings using a phase mask and a conventional incoherent source. All the distributed gratings were printed in a single photolithographic step with a slightly modified mask aligner. The DBRs excellent wavelength control for channels separated by as little as 0.8 nm is described. Many advanced photonic devices relying on gratings like quarter-wave shifted distributed feedback (DFB) lasers and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) components can potentially be manufactured with this technique in a simple and cost-effective way.<<ETX>>

A control loop which ensures high side-mode-suppression ratio in a tunable DBR laser

The authors present a control loop which ensures single-mode operation of a tunable distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR) laser. This control loop uses no external optics. The error signal is derived from an integrated detector which measures the light transmitted through the Bragg section. Using this signal to control the current to the Bragg section, the laser is tuned to where the side-mode-suppression ratio is high. This guarantees that the laser remains single-mode, even when modulated. This servo is capable of application in wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) systems.<<ETX>>