Evaluation and Optimization of SOA-based UNI Q-Factor

The performance of the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based ultrafast nonlinear interferometer (UNI) gated by an ultra-high speed pseudorandom binary sequence is theoretically analyzed using a comprehensive model developed for this purpose. By conducting numerical simulation, the impact of the SOA and input data critical parameters on the Q-factor is thoroughly investigated and assessed enabling to extract useful design rules for their proper selection so as to optimize this performance metric and ensure error-free operation.