Saturation of semiconductor optical amplifiers due to amplified spontaneous emission

Summary form only given. We solved the nonlinear integral equation for the carrier density by the method of fixed-point iteration for different SOA lengths. We also investigated the reduction in the gain recovery time due to the saturation caused by ASE, which is important for both linear and nonlinear applications. The spontaneous carrier lifetime can be reduced by approximately a factor of 10 when sufficiently long SOAs are used.