What is PICWAVE?
PICWave is a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and laser diode/SOA simulator capable of modelling both passive and active components efficiently using a time-domain method. It includes a detailed multi-modal SOA model.
The simulator is ideal for studying the interaction of optical components in a larger circuit, which can include passive components, DBR gratings, SOAs, modulators (QCSE and silicon), photodiodes, RLC circuits etc. You can find the detail of PICWave's modelling capabilities here.
PICwave can model devices that are even metres in length. It can for example model a 2mm diameter ring resonator in a very short time to resolutions of a few MHz in optical frequency.
Note: PICWave supersedes Photon Design's laser diode modelling tool i-CLADISS which is now obsolete.
Application:Mode Hopping In A Fabry-Perot Laser
Simulation with PICWave software
This example shows how PICWave can be used for the simulation of mode hopping in a Fabry-Perot laser diode.
Current is increased steadily from 0mA to 100mA in 20ns. Top plot is the optical output power. The middle plot is the mode gain giving an indication of the carrier density. The lower plot shows the time-evolving spectrum. The shifting mode frequencies below threshold can be seen until lasing locks the carrier density. Mode hops are accompanied by a temporary chaotic phase. Because of spatial hole burning the gain (middle plot) decreases gradually with increasing optical power.
See Other Application Samples
SOA modelling and link with Harold
Quarter-wavelength shifted DFB laser + modulator
SG-DBR tuneable laser
Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) hybrid laser
An active 2R optical regenerator
A 4x4 switch
A balanced photo-detector
Large ring resonators
Dispersion-compensating Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)