Spectral characteristics of optical pulse amplifications with a holding light in semiconductor optical amplifiers

This paper analyzes spectral characteristics of optical pulse amplification s with a holding light in semiconductor optical amplifiers and investigates spectral dependence on optical inputs and amplifier parameters. It is show n that spectral broadening decreases almost linearly with the holding light power by 10-20% and moreover the spectral width decreases up to that of th e input pulse under the gain reduction of 3 dB, For a linear-chirped input pulse, it is indicated that the spectral shift to lower frequency is genera l without the holding light but spectral peak can shift to higher frequency by the holding light. For bias current and amplifier length, the peak that the spectral shift is maximized appears since the carrier recovery is fast er while the frequency chirp is induced by self-phase modulation. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.