Repetition-rate dependence of the saturation power of gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifiers

We show theoretically that, when using gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifiers (GCSOAs) for the amplification of a train of pulses, the saturation power of the GCSOAs strongly depends on the repetition rate of the pulse train. This saturation power is 3 dB higher at very high repetition rates than at low repetition rates. It reaches a minimum for intermediate repetition rates, where it can even be 6 or more decibels smaller than the maximum saturation power level.