Study of the steady state and dynamical behavior of semiconductor optical amplifiers

摘要

We clarify the physical limitations of time-dependent dynamical characteristics of multi-quantum well semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA), using a phenomenological model based on a "rate equations" approach, in gain compression experiments. Then we perform a calculation of the optical gain using a tight-binding model for different multiple quantum well structures used as the active region of the SOA. We explain how to introduce strain in a multiple quantum well active region in order to achieve polarization-insensitive optical amplification.