Impact of gain saturation on size limitations of semiconductor laser amplifier (SLA) based switching structures

Size limitations of optical switching structures employing semiconductor laser amplifiers arising from signal extinction ratio, amplifier gain, and optical filter bandwidth are investigated theoretically and experimentally. Simulations reveal that the maximum number of SLA that can be cascaded in an optical switching structure increases with increasing input signal extinction ratio, optical gain of each SLA and decreases with increasing SLA noise figure, optical filter bandwidth and input signal bit rate.<
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