A direct comparison of single-walled carbon nanotubes and quantum-wells based subpicosecond saturable absorbers for all optical signal regeneration at 1.55 μm

Subpicosecond optical transmission experiments are used to compare saturable absorber (SA) based on bundled single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and iron-doped InGaAs/InP epitaxial multiple quantum wells (MQW) at 1.55 μm telecom wavelength. The SA key parameters (contrast ratio, saturation fluence, and recovery time) relevant for high speed all optical signal regeneration (AOSR) are extracted from the normalized differential transmission (NDT). Although both SA exhibit good contrast ratios, SWNT show a full signal recovery as well as a much faster response time than MQW. This original work on SA shows that SWNT are excellent candidates for future low cost AOSR.