ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the numerical modeling and simulation of carrier plasma–induced nonlinear optical phenomena in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA). It deals with a brief description of nonlinear processes in SOAs and their applications. SOA modeling is a sophisticated subject due to the number and complexity of processes that take place simultaneously in the device. The carrier density modulation (CDM) amplitude is obtained from the solution of the carrier density equation. A measurable quantity related to this is the variation in the injection current or voltage across the device, since the temporal fluctuations in the stimulated recombination rate result in temporal fluctuations in the current to resupply the carriers. The chapter utilizes the time-domain model developed to obtain an understanding of wave mixing processes in SOAs and the dependence of CDM on different operating parameters. It concludes with a case study exploring CDM caused by optical wave beating in SOAs.