Polarization-Insensitive SOAs Using Strained Bulk Active Regions

The polarization dependent gain (PDG) and its control is a key issue for semiconductor optical amplifier devices. For the case of a strained bulk active region with lateral tapers, an analysis of the parameters that affect PDG is performed, and the magnitude of its variation is calculated. The critical design parameters are thus identified, and the expected PDG variance is discussed in the context of typical fabrication tolerances