Semiconductor optical amplifier optical gate with graded strained bulk-like active structure

A novel semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) optical gate with a graded strained bulk-like active structure is proposed. A fiber-to-fiber gain of 10 dB when the coupling loss reaches 7 dB/factet and a polarization insensitivity of less than 0.9 dB for multiwavelength and different power input signals over the whole operation current are obtained. Moreover, for our SOA optical gate, a no-loss current of 50 to 70 mA and an extinction ratio of more than 50 dB are realized when the injection current is more than no-loss current, and the maximum extinction ratio reaches 71 dB, which is critical for crosstalk suppression. (C) 2003 society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.