A theoretical analysis of photonic crystal semiconductor optical amplifier (PC-SOA) is presented. The proposed model is based on rate and propagation equations. The analysis is carried out using two input signal regimes of constant and Gaussian waves. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, temporal and spatial variation of picosecond pulses have not been previously investigated in active PC medium. The effect of injection current, group index, and amplifier length variation on the output signal and amplifier gain is investigated. Based on the results, temporal peak shift, chirp, and spectral width increased in low current regime compared to conventional SOAs. It is also demonstrated that short length PC-SOA can be used as a preamplifier in photonic integrated circuits.
