High-Gain Mode-Adapted Semiconductor Optical Amplifier with 12.4 dBm Saturation Output Power at 1550 nm

A mode-adapted Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) has been fabricated and packaged. Statistics for 8 packaged devices, at 1550 nm, indicate a fiber-to-fiber gain of 26.3 dB +/- 1. 3 dB and a saturation output power of 12.4 dBm +/- 0.4 dBm at 500mA was realized. 

Polarization sensitivity at 1550 nm was measured to be 1.1 dB +/- 0.4 dB and the TE polarization state noise figure was determined to be 7.0 +/- 0.5. The coupling loss was 1.3 +/- 0.1 dB per facet. This SOA, with a 1.3 nm filter, was used as an optical pre-amplifier in a 10 Gb/s RZ system test-bed with a PRBS of 2 sup (31) -1. A 14.5 dB improvement in receiver sensitivity was observed at a BER of 10 sup (-11).