Ultrafast Phase Dynamics in Bulk Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

Accounting for spectral hole burning (SHB), carrier heating (CH), carrier density modulation and longitudinal nonuniformity, ultrafast phase dynamics in bulk semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) is numerically studied for different pump and probe wavelengths. We find that the contributions of SHB and CH to ultrafast phase dynamics are different in strength and change direction for different bands. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the phase dynamic range, phase recovery overshoot and phase partial recovery time depend on the probe and pump spectral positions.