1.3 µm GaInNAs Bandgap Difference Confinement Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

A GaInNAs bandgap difference confinement (BDC) semiconductor Optical amplifier (SOA) utilizing a bandgap difference between an active region and a cladding region for current confinement was developed for the first time. Due to strong current and optical confinernents in the lateral direction, this SOA exhibited a 4.3 dB larger chip gain and 2.1 dB smaller fiber coupling loss than the conventional GaInNAs-buried-ridge-stripe (BRS) SOA. In addition, the gain dependence of the GaInNAs-BDC-SOA on temperature was found to be Much smaller than that of the conventional InP-based-SOA, and comparable to that of the GaInNAs-BRS-SOA.