Acceleration of Gain Recovery in Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers by Optical Injection Near Transparency Wavelength

By using optical injection near the transparency wavelength of semiconductor optical amplifiers, we show experimentally that both the saturation output power and the gain recovery can be greatly improved. By injecting 80 mW of pump power, we observe a 3 dB increase in saturation output power. For 73 mW of pump power we find a reduction in gain recovery time from over 200 ps down to below 40 ps while maintaining 14 dB of fiber to fiber gain at 1555 nm wavelength.