Noise figure of saturated 1310-nm polarization insensitive multiple-quantum-well optical amplifiers

Author

Tiemeijer, L.F. ; Thijs, P.J.A. ; Van Dongen, T. ; Binsma, J.J.M. ; Jansen, E.J.

Author_Institution

Philips Optoelectron. Centre, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Volume

8

Issue

7

fYear

1996

fDate

7/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

873

Lastpage

875

Abstract

The noise figure degradation due to saturation by amplified spontaneous emission of high-gain 1310-nm polarization insensitive multiple-quantum-well optical amplifiers has been investigated systematically by studying amplifiers of different lengths. It is found that the intrinsic noise figure of 4 dB of a device with 20-dB single-pass gain is degraded to about 5 dB for a device having 36-dB single-pass gain. This degradation in noise figure is very modest, compared to results reported earlier for semiconductor optical amplifiers with bulk-gain media, illustrating the benefits of using a quantum-well gain medium in semiconductor optical amplifiers.

Keywords

laser noise; laser transitions; optical saturation; population inversion; quantum well lasers; superradiance; 1310 nm; 20 to 36 dB; 4 to 5 dB; amplified spontaneous emission; different lengths; high-gain; intrinsic noise figure; noise figure degradation; quantum-well gain medium; saturated 1310-nm polarization insensitive multiple-quantum-well optical amplifiers; semiconductor optical amplifiers; single-pass gain; Degradation; Noise figure; Optical amplifiers; Optical noise; Optical polarization; Optical saturation; Quantum well devices; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Spontaneous emission; Stimulated emission;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.502255

Filename

502255