SLALOM - SEMICONDUCTOR-LASER AMPLIFIER IN A LOOP MIRROR

The processing of optical signals in the optical domain is an important issue resulting from the desire to take advantage of the full bandwidth of the optical fiber, In this paper, we present detailed investigations on a device, which utilizes a semiconductor laser amplifier in a loop mirror configuration (SLALOM). Different modes of operation are reported like nonlinear single pulse switching and two-pulse switching at different operation speeds (1-100 Gb/s). Furthermore, a number of applications of the SLALOM in photonic systems, like pulse shaping, decoding, retiming and time-division demultiplexing, are presented, In addition, the SLALOM can be used for an estimate of the linewidth enhancement factor alpha and the carrier lifetime tau(e) in an SLA.