Performance comparison of GaInNAs vertical-cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers

Author

Laurand, N. ; Calvez, S. ; Dawson, M.D. ; Bryce, A.C. ; Jouhti, T. ; Konttinen, J. ; Pessa, M.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Photonics, Univ. of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

Volume

41

Issue

5

fYear

2005

fDate

5/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

642

Lastpage

649

Abstract

This paper reports on theoretical and experimental investigations of the influence of the number of GaInNAs quantum wells (QWs) on performance of 1.3-μm vertical-cavity semiconductor optical amplifiers (VCSOAs). Full characterization is carried out for two optically pumped VCSOAs with 6 and 15 QWs in the active layer. The 15-QW amplifier is found to be more efficient for amplification purposes but the highest gain to date was obtained for a 6-QW GaInNAs VCSOA, 19-dB on-chip gain in single-mode operation, having a top mirror reflectivity of 97.7%. At high-gain and for low enough reflectivity, the intrinsic noise figure is smaller than 5 dB.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; laser cavity resonators; laser mirrors; laser modes; laser noise; optical pumping; quantum well lasers; reflectivity; semiconductor optical amplifiers; surface emitting lasers; 1.3 mum; 19 dB; GaInNAs; GaInNAs quantum wells; intrinsic noise figure; on-chip gain; optical pumping; semiconductor optical amplifiers; single-mode operation; to mirror reflectivity; vertical-cavity amplifiers; Distributed Bragg reflectors; Mirrors; Noise figure; Optical amplifiers; Optical filters; Optical noise; Optical pumping; Reflectivity; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Stimulated emission; Distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs); GaAs; GaInNAs; optical pumping; quantum-well (QW) devices; semiconductor optical amplifiers; vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2005.844176

Filename

1424246