1.55-μm polarization-insensitive optical amplifier with strain-balanced superlattice active layer

Femtosecond dynamics of the nonlinear anisotropy in polarization insensitive semiconductor optical amplifiers

“…To avoid potential signal variation caused by this random input polarization state, polarization-insensitive SOAs ͑PI-SOAs͒ have been demonstrated recently in the 1.3 m region 1,2 and in the 1.5 m region. 3,4 The principle of operation of these devices relies mainly on the different polarization selection rules between conduction band to heavy hole band transitions and conduction band to light hole band transitions. [1][2][3][4] In compressively strained and unstrained quantum wells, the lowest energy radiative transitions are between the conduction band and heavy hole band.…”

“…3,4 The principle of operation of these devices relies mainly on the different polarization selection rules between conduction band to heavy hole band transitions and conduction band to light hole band transitions. [1][2][3][4] In compressively strained and unstrained quantum wells, the lowest energy radiative transitions are between the conduction band and heavy hole band. However, in sufficiently tensile-strained quantum wells, the allowed lowest energy radiative transitions couple the conduction band and light hole band.…”

Semiconductor optical amplifiers: performance and applications in optical packet switching [Invited]

“…If strain is not used for controlling polarization dependence, it is possible to fabricate SOAs where the waveguide is symmetric with dimensions of approximately 0.4 μm [15], although this type of design is more susceptible to variances in mesa width. Quantum-well active regions can also be used [9,[16][17][18] resulting in performance that is broadly similar to that of their bulk counterparts-the main advantage being the possibility of broader gain bandwidth at the expense of more complicated epitaxial growth.…”

Photonic Integrated Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Switch Circuits

“…The latter are tailored using epitaxially defined strain. A broad range of reports have demonstrated polarisation independent operation for both bulk (Emery et al, 1997;Dreyer et al, 2002;Morito et al, 2000;Kakitsuka et al, 2000;Morito et al, 2003;Morito et al, 2005) and quantum wells SOAs (Godefroy et al, 1995;Kelly et al, 1997;Ougazzadeu, 1995;Tiemeijer et al, 1996).…”