High-power 1.5-μm InGaAsP-InP slab-coupled optical waveguide amplifier

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 279 - 281
• Main Authors: Juodawlkis, P.W., Plant, J.J., Huang, R.K., Missaggia, L.J., Donnelly, J.P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.02.2005
• Subjects: Amplifiers; Confinement; Gain; High power amplifiers; Indium compounds; Noise levels; Optical amplifiers; optical fiber coupling; Optical losses; Optical saturation; Optical waveguides; Power amplifiers; Quantum wells; quantum-well devices; Saturation; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs); Semiconductor waveguides; Stimulated emission
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2004.839770

We report the first demonstration of a high-power semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) based on the slab-coupled optical waveguide concept. This concept allows the realization of SOAs having large fundamental optical modes, low loss, and small optical confinement factor. These attributes support large output saturation power, long length for efficient heat removal, and direct butt-coupling to single-mode fibers. The 1.5-μm InGaAsP-InP quantum-well amplifier described here has a length of 1 cm, 1/e 2 intensity widths of 4 μm (vertical) and 8 μm (horizontal), a fiber-to-fiber gain of 13 dB, and a fiber-coupled output saturation power of 630 mW (+28 dBm). The measured butt-coupling efficiency between the amplifier and SMF-28 is 55%. Thus, the output saturation power of the amplifier itself is approximately 1.1 W (+31 dBm).