Experimental analysis of internal optical losses in polarization-insensitive semiconductor optical amplifiers

摘要

We experimentally investigated the internal optical loss of a polarization-insensitive multiplenquantum well semiconductor optical amplifier u0002SOAu0003 over a wide injection current range. Thenprecise fitting of noise figure spectra using gain spectra and transparent wavelengths enabled a directnestimation of internal optical loss inside gain bandwidth. The internal optical loss of the SOAnexhibited large dependencies on injection current and the optical confinement factor of the activenlayer. A large difference in optical losses between polarization modes and operating wavelengths ofnthe SOA indicates a strong influence of intervalence band absorption. © 2010 American Institute ofnPhysics. u0004doi:10.1063/1.3531956