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Trap-door optical buffering using a flat-top coupled microring filter: the superluminal cavity approach
Optics Letters
|October 10, 2013
Summary
We developed a novel optical buffer using a coupled microrings add/drop filter (ADF). This tunable buffer can trap and release optical pulses, offering enhanced bandwidth and flatness for optical signal processing.
Area of Science:
- Photonics
- Optical Communications
- Integrated Optics
Background:
- Optical buffers are crucial for managing data flow in optical networks.
- Existing optical buffer designs face limitations in performance and bandwidth.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and theoretically analyze a novel trap-door optical buffer.
- To achieve a maximally flat add/drop filter (ADF) with a wide spectral band.
- To demonstrate a practical silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based design.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical analysis of a coupled microrings flat-top add/drop filter (ADF).
- Utilizing a white light cavity concept for filter design.
- Performance analysis considering realistic material and fabrication limitations.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated a trap-door mechanism by tuning microring resonance.
- Achieved superior filter flatness and bandwidth compared to previous designs.
- Obtained delays exceeding 5 ns for an 80 GHz bandwidth, yielding a delay-bandwidth product of ~400.
Conclusions:
- The proposed trap-door optical buffer based on coupled microrings ADF offers efficient optical pulse trapping and release.
- The white light cavity approach enables a maximally flat ADF with wide spectral resonance.
- The SOI-based design shows practical feasibility and significant performance metrics for optical buffering.
