Alcatel

Beatrice Dagens

Christopher Janz

Leon Goldstein

Denis Leclerc

Michael Schilling

Klaus Wunstel

Jean-Yves Emery

The invention relates to an optical component based on semi-conductor optical amplifiers in which the number of independent electrodes is reduced. The component has different regions (,) with the same vertical structure wherein an active waveguide (,) is buried between the upper and lower buffer layers. These regions each have lower and upper electrodes (,, E,, E,) for the purpose of injecting into them equal or different values of current density. This component is characterized in that at least one (,) of the said electrodes covers a number of regions (,) and has distributed resistivity which is adjusted depending on the region under consideration.

Optical component based on semi-conductor optical amplifiers having a reduced number of independent electrodes

To increase its saturation threshold very strongly without degrading its gain, whilst remaining compatible with any semiconductor amplifier structure or technology, a semiconductor optical amplifier includes an input coupler having an input port and g output ports and an output coupler having g input ports and one output port. The q output ports of the input coupler are respectively connected to the q input ports of the output coupler by q semiconductor optical amplifiers having the same amplification characteristics. Applications include transmission of optical signals and to producing 'all optical' switching devices.

Semiconductor optical amplifier device

To form an integrated optical component comprising a thick waveguide coupled to a thin waveguide, the method consists in: depositing a first guiding layer of said thick waveguide on a substrate; locally etching said first guiding layer over a portion allocated both to a coupling interface and to the thin waveguide; depositing a second guiding layer on the first guiding layer and on the locally etched portion so as to form said thick waveguide in a manner such that it has a maximum thickness in a first zone, a graded-thickness section in a second zone, and a reduced-thickness section in a third zone; locally etching the second guiding layer over a portion of the third zone, said portion being allocated to the thin waveguide; and depositing a third guiding layer in said portion of said third zone so as to form said thin waveguide.

Method of manufacturing an integrated optical component comprising a

An integrated interferometer structure, in particular for optical signal wavelength converters, includes a first branch and a second branch including at least a first semiconductor optical amplifier coupled to input and/or output peripheral semiconductor optical amplifiers. The structure includes an attenuation section between the output of at least one amplifier of one branch and the input of the output peripheral amplifier and/or the length of the waveguide of at least one peripheral amplifier is less than 300 .mu.m. Applications in telecommunications, in particular for routing signals.

Integrated interferometer structure

The invention relates to wavelength converters for optical signals, as used in telecommunications, in particular for routing signals. The invention relates in particular to a wavelength converter including an interferometer structure for delivering an output optical signal, in which converter first and second branches, including at least one first semiconductor optical amplifier, are coupled to input peripheral semiconductor optical amplifiers and/or to an output peripheral semiconductor optical amplifier, wherein the structure of the active waveguide of at least one peripheral amplifier is so designed that it has a ratio of active area to confinement factor greater than that of the active waveguide of said first amplifier.

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Paris, France

Beatrice Dagens