Gain-switched laser pulse propagation in a semiconductor optical amplifier

Abstract

The simplest method to produce pulses in the picosecond range for applications in telecommunications is to use a gain-switched laser. There has been considerable interest in short pulse propagation in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), but to our knowledge little attention has been given to specific effects arising from the use of gain-switched pulses. In this paper we report the results of measurements of the propagation of such pulses in an SOA and compare them with results from a numerical model. The model is able to give good agreement with experiment for the characteristic distortion observed in the output pulse spectrum.