Analysis of the performance of tapered semiconductor optical amplifiers: role of the taper angle
The role of the taper angle in the performance of tapered semiconductor optical amplifiers emitting at 1.57\(\upmu \)m is analyzed by means of simulations with a self-consistent steady state electro-optical and thermal simulator. The results indicate that the self-focusing caused by carrier lensing is delayed to higher output powers for devices with taper angle slightly higher than the free diffraction angle and therefore a higher power with beam quality is attainable with these devices at the expenses of a lower efficiency.
semiconductor optical amplifier (soa) tapered lasers numerical simulation