Gain saturation in traveling-wave ridge waveguide semiconductor laser amplifiers

The saturation behavior of traveling-wave ridge waveguide diode amplifiers is studied both numerically and analytically. It is shown that an 'effective saturation power' can be used to characterize the saturation of these devices by up to 4 dB. The effective saturation power, which is sensitive to device geometry, carrier density, and operating wavelength, is useful in the design of the ridge waveguide optical amplifiers.>