Polarization dependence of patterning effects in quantum well semiconductor optical amplifier-based wavelength conversion

In this paper, polarization dependence of patterning effects in quantum well semiconductor optical amplifier-based wavelength conversion is experimentally and theoretically investigated. The carrier and photon density rate equations are numerically solved by using the time-domain traveling wave model. The material gain calculation, including the strain effect in the active layer, is based on the k·p method. By comparing experimental and computational results, it is demonstrated that the polarization of the injection signal has a significant influence on the gain recovery time of quantum well semiconductor optical amplifier. Under the cross-polarized signals injection, the output signals suffer the weakest and strongest patterning effects both for unstrained and tensile strained quantum well semiconductor optical amplifiers.