The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 02, 2007
Filed:
Jan. 29, 2004
Simarjeet S. Saini, Columbia, MD (US);
Peter J. S. Heim, Washington, DC (US);
Scott A. Merritt, McLean, VA (US);
Mario Dagenais, Chevy Chase, MD (US);
Simarjeet S. Saini, Columbia, MD (US);
Peter J. S. Heim, Washington, DC (US);
Scott A. Merritt, McLean, VA (US);
Mario Dagenais, Chevy Chase, MD (US);
Quantum Photonics, Inc., Jessup, MD (US);
Abstract
A semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) has an overall gain that is substantially polarization independent, i.e., less than 1 dB difference between transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) gain. The SOA includes a residual cladding layer having different thicknesses over different portions of the gain section. Over a first portion of the gain section, the residual cladding layer is thinner than over a second portion of the gain section. This results in the first portion providing more gain to optical energy having a TE polarization state than optical energy having a TM polarization state. In the second portion of the gain section, however, more gain is provided to optical energy having a TM polarization state than energy having a TE polarization state. The resulting gain differences can be designed to offset one another so that the output has a gain that is substantially polarization independent.