Abstract

Using numerical simulations, we show that cross-gain modulation between pairs of counter-propagating pulses within a semiconductor optical amplifier can be used to detect the range and reflectivity of a target, forming a compact time-of-flight laser ranger. The range is deduced from multiple contacts along the SOA. The SOA also provides gain to the optical pulses reflected off the target. A single external component is required to provide pulses into back of the SOA, with the front of the SOA being directly coupled to the target.

©2005 Optical Society of America

Reduced component count optical delay discriminator using a semiconductor optical amplifier-detector

Arthur James Lowery and Malin Premaratne
Opt. Express 13(1) 290-295 (2005)

Photonic integrated circuit as a picosecond pulse timing discriminator

Arthur James Lowery and Leimeng Zhuang
Opt. Express 24(8) 8776-8781 (2016)

Ultrahigh supermode noise suppressing ratio of a semiconductor optical amplifier filtered harmonically mode-locked Erbium-doped fiber laser

Gong-Ru Lin, Ming-Chung Wu, Yung-Cheng Chang, and Ci-Ling Pan
Opt. Express 13(18) 7215-7224 (2005)

Polarization-insensitive phase conjugation using single pump Bragg-scattering four-wave mixing in semiconductor optical amplifiers

Aneesh Sobhanan and Deepa Venkitesh
Opt. Express 26(18) 22761-22772 (2018)

Double-pass amplification of picosecond pulses with a tapered semiconductor amplifier

Adam F. Forrest, Michel Krakowski, Paolo Bardella, and Maria Ana Cataluna
Opt. Express 27(21) 30752-30762 (2019)