Time resolved chirp measurements of fast electro-optical switches based on semiconductor optical amplifiers

A time resolved chirp measurement technique is introduced to measure optical carrier frequency fluctuations during the sub-nanosecond off-on and on-off transition of electro- optical switches based on semiconductor optical amplifiers. A periodic injected current signal was used for the switching action and a high performance optical bandpass filter for frequency discrimination. The results show a chirp peak of 3 GHz for injected current excursion of 80 mA.