Low noise figure (7.2 dB) and high gain (29 dB)semiconductor optical amplifier with a single layer AR coating

Abstract

An angled facet strained MQW semiconductor laser amplifier with integrated mode expanders has been designed and fabricated. A device with simple single layer antireflection coatings exhibited a maximum of 29 dB fibre-to-fibre gain with a minimum noise figure of 7.2 dB at 26 dB gain and a saturation output power of 7.5 dBm. This gain is equal to the highest reported for an SLA operating at 1.5 µm while the noise performance is superior to that in any published work.