New, process tolerant, high performance 1.55 /spl mu/m polarization insensitive semiconductor optical amplifier based on low tensile bulk GaInAsP

We demonstrate a polarization independent semiconductor optical amplifier using low tensile bulk separate confinement heterostructure. Internal gain as high as 30 dB with polarization sensitivity lower than 1 dB is obtained in a structure with 0.15% tensile strain.