In this work the ultrafast gain recovery dynamics of a quantum dot semiconductor optical amplifier is investigated on the basis of semiconductor Bloch equations including microscopically calculated carrier-carrier scattering rates between the two-dimensional carrier reservoir and the confined quantum dot ground and first excited state. By analyzing the different scattering contributions we show that the cascading process makes a major contribution to the ultrafast recovery dynamics.

• Received 27 August 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.235301