Impact of the Gain Saturation Dynamics in Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers on the characteristics of an Analog Optical Link

Reynald Boula-Picard (1) , Mehdi Alouini (1) , Jérôme Lopez (1) , Nakita Vodjdani (1) , Jean-Claude Simon (2)

1 TRT - Thales Research and Technologies [Orsay]
2 FOTON - Fonctions Optiques pour les Technologies de l'informatiON

We evaluate both theoretically and experimentally the gain saturation dynamics of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOA) when inserted into an analog optical link. Its impact in terms of RF frequency response, nonlinearity and noise is investigated. In particular, the frequency response is shown to be a peculiar high pass filter exhibiting two characteristic frequencies.

Mots clés: semiconductor optical amplifier; microwave communication; dynamic response

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Reynald Boula-Picard, Mehdi Alouini, Jérôme Lopez, Nakita Vodjdani, Jean-Claude Simon. Impact of the Gain Saturation Dynamics in Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers on the characteristics of an Analog Optical Link. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2005, Vol.23 (Issue 8), pp.2420- 2426. ⟨10.1109/JLT.2005.850792⟩. ⟨hal-00080282⟩