Analyses of the effects of birefringence on performances of SOA-based interferometer devices

摘要

The effects of birefringence on performances of SOA-based interferometer devices are analyzed theoretically, the necessity of fabricating SOA whose gain and induced phase shift are both independent on polarization state is proposed. Birefringence in SOA will degrade the performances of SOA-based devices due to polarization walkoff of the two split probe light. The calculations for a SOA-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer wavelength-converter indicate that the extinction ratio will decrease and become very sensitive to the polarization state of input light if there is birefringence in SOAs. A scheme is proposed to eliminate these effects and the possibility of making a SOA polarization insensitive in gain and induce phase shift is analyzed theoretically.