A wideband steady-state model and efficient numerical algorithm for a bulk InP-InGaAsP homogeneous buried ridge stripe semiconductor optical amplifier is described. The model is applicable over a wide range of operating regimes. The relationship between spontaneous emission and material gain is clarified. Simulations and comparisons with experiment are given which demonstrate the versatility of the model.

An all-optical AND gate based on optically induced nonlinear polarization rotation of a probe light in a bulk semiconductor optical amplifier is realized at a bit rate of 2.5Gbit/s. By operating the AND gate in an up and inverted wavelength conversion scheme, the extinction ratio is improved by 8dB compared with previously published work.

A wide-band steady-state model of a tensile-strained bulk InGaAsP semiconductor optical amplifier is described. An efficient numerical algorithm of the steady-state model and a parameter extraction algorithm based on the Levenberg-Marquardt method are described. The parameter extraction technique is used to determine the material Auger recombination coefficient, effective intraband lifetime, the average strain and molar fraction of Arsenic in the active region. Simulations and comparisons with experiment are given which demonstrate the accuracy and versatility of the model

Signal-induced birefringence and dichroism in a tensile-strained bulk semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) are demonstrated in a counterpropagation scheme. The polarization azimuth rotation and the change of ellipticity angle of the probe light are presented on the Poincare/spl acute/ sphere and can be calculated by the Stokes parameters. All-optical wavelength conversion (inverted/noninverted and upconversion/downconversion) based on cross polarization modulation (XPolM) in SOAs are investigated. It is shown that a bit error rate (BER) of 9 dB can be obtained at a bit rate of 2.488 Gb/s with a 2/sup 31/-1 non-return-to-zero (NRZ) pseudorandom bit sequence (PRBS). Because of the larger birefringence effect induced by the pump light in the longer wavelength range, upconversion shows better performance than downconversion. Compared with the noninverted case, inverted wavelength conversion shows better performance due to the positive contribution from cross gain modulation (XGM), which takes place simultaneously with XPolM.