Open AccessHigh-speed all-optical thresholding via carrier lifetime tunability
Author(s) -
Aashu Jha,
Chaoran Huang,
Thomas Ferreira de Lima,
Paul R. Prucnal
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
optics letters/optics index
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.524
H-Index - 272
eISSN - 1071-2763
pISSN - 0146-9592
DOI - 10.1364/ol.387497
Subject(s) - signal processing , carrier lifetime , optics , materials science , photonics , silicon photonics , thresholding , optoelectronics , nonlinear system , computer science , silicon , electronic engineering , physics , digital signal processing , engineering , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , image (mathematics)
We theoretically study the effect of free-carrier lifetime on processing speed and strength of nonlinearity, pertaining to our all-optical thresholder. We find that optimal device performance necessitates tuning lifetime while optimizing for both speed and nonlinearity. We also experimentally demonstrate device processing speed improvement from 400 Mbps to 2.5 Gbps by incorporating PN-junction mediated free-carrier lifetime tuning mechanism. Our study on the significance of free-carrier lifetime is universally applicable to any optical signal processing system reliant on silicon photonic nonlinearities.