Reconfigurable Optical Signal Processing Based on a Distributed Feedback Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

All-optical signal processing has been considered a solution to overcome the bandwidth and speed limitations imposed by conventional electronic-based systems. Over the last few years, an impressive range of all-optical signal processors have been proposed, but few of them come with reconfigurability, a feature highly needed for practical signal processing applications. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate an analog optical signal processor based on a phase-shifted distributed feedback semiconductor optical amplifier (DFB-SOA) and an optical filter. The proposed analog optical signal processor can be reconfigured to perform signal processing functions including ordinary differential equation solving and temporal intensity differentiation. The reconfigurability is achieved by controlling the injection currents. Our demonstration provitdes a simple and effective solution for all-optical signal processing and computing.