Optical impulse response of semiconductor optical amplifiers in a counter-propagation Mach-Zehnder switch

Counter propagating control and signal pulse interactions exist in many important optical components in fiber optical communication networks and ultra-fast signal processing systems employing semiconductor optical amplifiers. Challenges facing this particular interaction configuration are considered analytically. Signal pulse propagation is studied by solving its traveling-wave equation under a perturbation approximation with the control pulse arriving at the opposite side of the semiconductor optical amplifier. The derived analytical expressions of optical impulse response clearly elucidate the physics involved in counter-propagating configurations