A technique is presented for measuring the optical phase transfer function of optoelectronic devices for stimulus frequencies from 100 MHz up to the modulation bandwidth of the device. Using high-resolution optical spectra and a novel instrument setup that makes use of RF signal processing to obtain the stimulus signals, the change in phase of an optical signal is obtained as a function of a time-varying electrical stimulus for electrical-to-optical devices or an optical stimulus for optical-to-optical devices. In the technique, the modulation frequency of the stimulus can be varied over a wide range (e.g., 100 MHz to 10 GHz for a 10 Gb/s device). Thus the proposed technique complements low-frequency and stepped measurements of the optical phase transfer function. The technique is demonstrated by considering the change in phase of the output signal from an electroabsorption modulator as a function of the applied voltage.

Date Published: 13 October 2005
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 5970, Photonic Applications in Devices and Communication Systems, 59701Z (13 October 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.628671

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5970:
Photonic Applications in Devices and Communication Systems
Peter Mascher; John C. Cartledge; Andrew Peter Knights; David V. Plant, Editor(s)