Semiconductor optical amplifiers (booster optical amplifiers) are amplifiers which use a semiconductor to provide the gain medium. They have a similar structure to Fabry–Perot laser diodes but with anti-reflection design elements at the end faces. Recent designs include anti-reflective coatings and tilted waveguide and window regions which can reduce end face reflection to less than 0.001%. Since this creates a loss of power from the cavity which is greater than the gain, it prevents the amplifier from acting as a laser.
Features:
• Broadband high gain (>30dB in 950-1050nm range)
• Strong linear polarization
• RoHS compliance
Applications:
• Swept-source, seeding, tunable lasers
• Booster optical amplifiers
• Optical preamplifiers
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT)