The gain decompression effect and its applications to very fast wavelength conversions

The gain recovery in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) follows a two-step process: (1) an ultrafast gain recovery process through the nonlinear gain decompression effect and (2) a slower carrier recovery process that is dominated by carrier effects like Auger recombination or carrier diffusion. We discuss and numerically demonstrate how to control this decompression gain and apply it to very fast wavelength conversions.