Gbit / s transmission in an erbium - doped waveguide amplifier on silicon

Signal transmission experiments were performed at 170 Gbit/s in an integrated Al2O3:Er 3+ waveguide amplifier to investigate its potential application in high-speed photonic integrated circuits. Net internal gain of up to 11 dB was measured for a continuous-wave 1532 nm signal under 1480 nm pumping, with a threshold pump power of 4 mW. A differential group delay of 2 ps between the TE and TM fundamental modes of the 5.7cm-long amplifier was measured. When selecting a single polarization open eye diagrams and bit error rates equal to those of the transmission system without the amplifier were observed for a 1550 nm signal encoded with a 170 Gbit/s return-to-zero pseudo-random 2 7 -1 bit sequence. ©2009 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (130.3120) Integrated optics devices; (130.3130) Integrated optics materials; (140.4480) Optical amplifiers; (160.5690) Rare-earth-doped materials. References and links 1. Y. Kang, H.-D. Liu, M. Morse, M. J. Paniccia, M. Zadka, S. Litski, G. 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