Analysis of transient response and instability in fiber ring resonators containing an erbium-doped fiber amplifier and quantum dot-doped fiber saturable absorber

In this paper, the transient response of a double coupler fiber ring resonator containing an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) in half part of the fiber ring resonator and a quantum dot-doped fiber (QDF) saturable absorber in the other half, is investigated. It is demonstrated that, depending on the device parameters and the input power of the signal and pump, various types of dynamic behaviors (such as bistability, monostability, and regenerative pulsation) can be observed in this intrinsic, optical bistable device. The proposed device can be exploited by optical communication networks to realize all-optical functionalities. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America