Control of carrier reserving and injection for high-speed semiconductor optical amplifier by using a tunnel injection structure

Abstract

In this study, we explore a new way of controlling the carrier dynamics of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) by using a tunneling injection structure, which allows for high-speed operation. The proposed SOA uses carrier reserving to compensate for the decreased carriers caused by signal amplification. We can control the SOA operation properties for high-speed signals by adjusting its characteristics of carrier injection from the reservoir layer to the active layer. Numerical simulations showed that this structure has the potential to suppress signal distortion at a high operation speed of 100 Gbps.