Abstract

Semiconductor-laser amplifiers (SLA) will play an important role as functional devices for optical signal processing. The main advantages of these devices are optical gain, compactness and the potential for opto-electronic integration. Two years ago the applications seemed to be restricted to an operation speed slower than 10 GHz, as determined by the free carrier lifetime of the SLA. On the other hand, studies on the nonlinear gain dynamics in the SLA revealed processes in the subpicosecond range. In these studies the interest was mainly focused on the still controversial origin (spectral hole burning, dynamic carrier heating) of these very fast processes. Only recently experiments were performed with the intention to study the possibility for applications of the subpicosecond nonlinear-gain dynamics for optical signal processing.

© 1994 Optical Society of America