Embodiments of the present disclosure include optical transmitters and transceivers with improved reliability. In some embodiments, the optical transmitters are used in network devices, such as in conjunction with a network switch. In one embodiment, lasers are operated at low power to improve reliability and power consumption. The output of the laser may be modulated by a non-direct modulator and received by integrated optical components, such as a modulator and/or multiplexer. The output of the optical components may be amplified by a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Various advantageous configurations of lasers, optical components, and SOAs are disclosed. In some embodiments, SOAs are configured as part of a pluggable optical communication module, for example.

A light source includes: a seed light source configured to output incoherent seed light with a predetermined bandwidth; and a booster amplifier that is a semiconductor optical amplifier configured to optically amplify the seed light input from a first facet, and output the amplified seed light as amplified light from a second facet, wherein the first facet and the second facet of the booster amplifier are subjected to a reflection reduction treatment, the booster amplifier is configured to operate in a gain saturated state, and relative intensity noise (RIN) and ripple are simultaneously suppressed in the amplified light.

The present disclosure discloses a miniaturized MOPA structure DPSSL (Diode Pumped Solid State Laser), which comprises a laser oscillator module and a laser amplifier module. The laser oscillator module consists of a seed laser and its collimating system, and the laser amplifier module consists of a laser pump module and a laser gain element. The seed laser with high beam quality is collimated by collimation system, then input into the gain element; the pump laser is pumped into the gain element via end pump or side pump mode. The seed laser beam transmits into the gain medium and is reflected by the interface several times with the “Zigzag” path, which makes the seed laser fully gained and amplified, finally achieving high power and high beam quality laser output.

In this present disclosure, the laser gain material is doped with different rare-earth ion concentrations and processed into different shapes. Some polishing surfaces of the gain material are deposited with different coatings including HR coating and AR coating, on the one hand, to improve the absorption efficiency of the pump laser, on the other hand, to make the seeds laser in the gain element achieve longer transmission distance by Zigzag transmission path, so that the energy in the gain medium can be fully extracted. And finally, achieve high power laser output.

The present disclosure can adopt the host material doped at least at the same time with Er and Yb elements as the laser gain medium, adopt high-quality 1.55-micron or other medium emission peak band seed laser source as well as end or side pump mode, and can realize the laser output with high power and high beam quality.

Compared with the MOPA laser of the prior art, the present disclosure has the advantages of simple structure, small volume, and low cost.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include optical transmitters and transceivers with improved reliability. In some embodiments, the optical transmitters are used in network devices, such as in conjunction with a network switch. In one embodiment, lasers are operated at low power to improve reliability and power consumption. The output of the laser may be modulated by a non-direct modulator and received by integrated optical components, such as a modulator and/or multiplexer. The output of the optical components may be amplified by a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Various advantageous configurations of lasers, optical components, and SOAs are disclosed. In some embodiments, SOAs are configured as part of a pluggable optical communication module, for example.

Examples disclosed herein relate to quantum-dot (QD) photonics. In accordance with some of the examples disclosed herein, a QD semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) may include a silicon substrate and a QD layer above the silicon substrate. The QD layer may include an active gain region to amplify a lasing mode received from an optical signal generator. The QD layer may have a gain recovery time such that the active gain region amplifies the received lasing mode without pattern effects. A waveguide may be included in an upper silicon layer of the silicon substrate. The waveguide may include a mode converter to facilitate optical coupling of the received lasing mode between the QD layer and the waveguide.

Described herein are photonic integrated circuits (PICs) comprising a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to output a signal comprising a plurality of wavelengths, a sensor to detect data associated with a power value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA, a filter to filter power values of one or more of the wavelengths of the output signal of the SOA, and control circuitry to control the filter to reduce a difference between a pre-determined power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA and the detected power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA.

Exemplary methods and apparatus may provide optical gates and optical switches using such optical gates. Each optical gate may include a semiconductor optical amplifier that is placed in a substrate. The semiconductor optical amplifier may be coupled to input and output couplers to receive and selectively output optical signals into and out of the substrate.

In some implementations, an optical device (e.g., a monolithic master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) diode) may include a first facet, one or more gratings, an amplifier structure terminated with a second facet, and an oscillator array that includes multiple singlemode oscillators coupled to the first facet and to the one or more gratings. In some implementations, the multiple singlemode oscillators may be configured to generate multiple seed beams and to transmit the multiple seed beams into the amplifier structure through the one or more gratings.

A wavelength tunable light source includes: a common wavelength filter that has periodic transmission peak wavelengths or reflection peak wavelengths and is commonly used for a plurality of channels; a wavelength tunable filter that is coupled to the common wavelength filter and has a one-input and multiple-output configuration which has a plurality of output ports, and that has a plurality of transmission peak wavelengths corresponding to the plurality of channels at the plurality of output ports; and a plurality of gain media optically coupled to the plurality of output ports of the wavelength tunable filter, wherein a plurality of laser cavities that perform laser oscillation at a plurality of different wavelengths are formed between the common wavelength filter and the plurality of gain media.

In an EADFB laser with an integrated SOA, a new configuration in which deterioration of optical waveform quality is solved or mitigated while taking advantage of characteristics that the same layer structure can be used and the manufacturing process can be simplified is shown. In an optical transmitter of the present disclosure, a carrier density is optimized depending on a light intensity inside the SOA and an amount of carrier consumption. The SOA is electrically separated into a plurality of regions, and a current is injected into each region independently. The divided SOA region is configured so that a length of the SOA region becomes shorter as a region is farther from an incidence end of the SOA. Further, for the divided SOA, an amount of carrier consumption increases as the SOA region is farther from the incidence end, so that a current injection amount is increased.