Theory of signal degradation in semiconductor laser amplifiers in direct detection systems

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Abstract
Theoretical studies are carried out on long-haul direct detection optical fiber communication systems, with in-line optical semiconductor amplifier repeaters. Calculations are made of the noise, eye diagrams and bit-error-rate characteristics of lightwave systems with optical amplifiers. Indications are given of the effect of amplifier characteristics such as spontaneous noise and signal distortion due to gain saturation on the system performance. The nonlinear process within semiconductor laser amplifiers leads generally to pulse amplitude-temporal distortions due to gain saturation. This theoretical study demonstrates that the system penalty caused by these nonlinear effects appear progressively as the optical input power at each amplifier is increased. For example, nonregenerated fiber transmission using traveling wave semiconductor laser amplifiers is simulated and results obtained at 0.5 and 2.5 Gb/s are presented. In order to improve the system performance, the influence of structure and bulk dimensions of the amplifier cavity is also considered.