10 Gbit/s RZ transmission over 5000 km with gain-clampedsemiconductor optical amplifiers and saturable absorbers

Abstract

By combining a gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifier (GC-SOA) and a saturable absorber-semiconductor optical amplifier module, 10 Gbit/s RZ transmission over 5000 km (200 × 25 km) has been demonstrated in a fibre loop setup. It is shown that a GC-SOA could compensate for the patterning introduced by a conventional SOA.