Condition for canard explosion in a semiconductor optical amplifier

A model for the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) consisting of two coupled, nonlinear, first-order differential equations is analytically explored on the basis of the geometric theory of singularly perturbed dynamical systems. The value of the control parameter μ, accounting for the stimulated emission, for which the solution exhibits the phenomenon of "canard explosion" is determined depending on the rest of the SOA's parameters. Such value is represented by a power series of a small parameter μ of the singularly perturbed system. An example is considered where the canard explosion is numerically evaluated for a typical set of the SOA's parameters. The importance of rigorous determination of the critical regime in the SOA for optical synchronization and photonic clocking is outlined.