Ultrafast nonlinear optical properties of passive and active semiconductor devices

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.Nonlinear optical properties and ultrafast carrier dynamics of slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifiers, silicon nanowaveguides, and III-V semiconductor saturable Bragg reflectors are studied. The limits imposed by two photon absorption and free-carrier absorption on the gain and output powers of an InGaAsP/InP slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier with a confinement factor of [gamma] = 0.5% are determined. The two-photon absorption coefficient and the induced freecarrier absorption cross-section were measured to be 65cm/GW and 7x10-4 cm2, respectively. The effects of two-photon absorption begin to limit the gain significantly for pulses shorter than 40ps. The carrier recovery times were observed to vary between 390 to 160ps for 1A to 4A bias currents, and the short-pulse saturation fluence of the gain was determined to be 1.4mJ/cm2. Furthermore, nonlinear optical processes in high-index-contrast waveguide circuits consisting of 106nm x 497nm silicon waveguides with Si0 2 and HSQ cladding layers were studied using a heterodyne pump probe experimental setup. The linear loss of the waveguides was determined to be 6.5dB/cm. The two-photon absorption coefficient and free-carrier absorption effective crosssection were determined to be 0.68cm/GW, and 1.9x10-17 cm 2, respectively. Coefficients for the index changes due to optical Kerr effect, and free-carrier density were determined to be 3.2x10- 4 cm 2/W, and -5.5x10-21 cm3. Effects of the proton bombardment on linear loss and carrier lifetimes in the devices were also studied. Carrier lifetime reduction to 33ps with a linear loss of only 14.8dB/cm was achieved using a proton bombardment level of 105 /cm 2. Ultrafast dynamics of semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors were also investigated. The addition of resonant layers to the absorbers resulted in lower saturation fluence and increased non-saturable loss. Proton bombardment was utilized on these devices as well, to decrease the carrier recovery times. With proton bombardment of single-absorber layer devices with 40KeV proton energies at a dose of 1015/cm2, a 1.5ps carrier recovery time was achieved in single-absorber structures.by Ali Reza Motamedi.Ph.D

Integrated photonic analog-to-digital converters

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-172).Accurate conversion of wideband multi-GHz analog signals into the digital domain has long been a target of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) developers, driven by applications in radar systems, software radio, medical imaging, and communication systems. Aperture jitter has been a major bottleneck on the way towards higher speeds and better accuracy. Photonic ADCs, which perform sampling using ultra-stable optical pulse trains generated by mode-locked lasers, have been investigated as a promising approach to overcome the jitter problem and bring ADC performance to new levels. This work demonstrates that the photonic approach can deliver on its promise by digitizing a 41 GHz signal with 7.0 effective bits and 52 dBc spur-free dynamic range (SFDR) using a discrete-component photonic ADC. This corresponds to 15 fs jitter, a 4-5 times improvement over the jitter of the best electronic ADCs, and an order of magnitude improvement over the jitter of electronic ADCs operating above 10 GHz. The feasibility of a practical photonic ADC is demonstrated by creating an integrated ADC with a modulator, filters, and photodetectors fabricated on a single silicon chip and using it to sample a 10 GHz signal with 3.5 effective bits and 39 dBc SFDR. In both experiments, a sample rate of 2.1 GSa/s was obtained by interleaving two 1.05 GSa/s channels; higher sample rates can be achieved by increasing the channel count. A key component of a multi-channel ADC - a dual multi-channel high-performance filter bank - is successfully implemented. A concept for broadband linearization of the silicon modulator, which is another critical component of the photonic ADC, is proposed. Nonlinear phenomena in silicon microring filters and their impact on ADC performance are analyzed, and methods to reduce this impact are proposed. The results presented in the thesis suggest that a practical integrated photonic ADC, which successfully overcomes the electronic jitter bottleneck, is possible today.by Anatol Khilo.Ph.D