分析了半导体光放大器中双折射对基于半导体光放大器的干涉型器件性能的影响,对基于半导体光放大器的马赫曾德尔型波长转换器的理论计算表明,当半导体光放大器有双折射存在时,消光比不仅要比无双折射时的要低,而且还随着探测光的偏振态而改变,变化幅度可大于10 dB。提出了减小双折射对干涉型器件影响的方案,并且分析了实现对增益和对相位变化同时具有偏振不灵敏的半导体光放大器的可能性。

The effects of birefringence on performances of SOA-based interferometer devices are analyzed theoretically. The necessity of fabricating SOA whose gain and induced phase shift are both independent on polarization state is proposed. The calculations for a SOA-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer wavelength-converter indicate that the extinction ratio will decrease and become very sensitive to the polarization state of input light if there is birefringence in SOAs, the extinction ratio variation is higher than 10 dB. A scheme is proposed to eliminate these effects, and the possibility of making a SOA with both gain and induced phase shift insensitive to polarization is analyzed.