Characterization and optimization of semiconductor optical amplifier for ultra high speed applications: A review

Basic modeling, characterization and optimization of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) functionalities is presented in this paper for high speed optical application. In this paper we investigate few proposed techniques to improve slow carrier recovery time of SOA for its potential use in high speed optical network applications. It is shown that through Quantum dot structure, SOA can have 100 times faster carrier recovery then conventional SOA. Multiplexing intensity dependent data bits along with holding beam in SOA can also improve carrier recovery time in SOA. Increasing drive current of SOA and wavelength diversity technique are the other two techniques which can be used to provide stable gain in SOA.