Optical bistability in SOA-BJT Devices

PABLO A. COSTANZO CASO; MICHAEL GEHL; SERGIO GRANIERI; AZAD SIAHMAKOUN; YIYE JIN

Niagara Falls

Congreso; Photonics North 2010; 2010

SPIE

A novel optical bistable device based on an electrically coupled semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and a bipolar juncturetransistor (BJT) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The measured switching time is about 0.9-1.0 us, mainly limited by theelectrical capacitance of the SOA and the parasitic inductance of the electrical connections. However, the effects of parasiticcomponents can be reduced employing current electronic-photonic integration circuits (EPIC). Numerical simulations confirm that forcapacitance values in tens of femtofarads switching speed can reach tens of GHz.