Optical traveling-wave amplifier based on an injection laser diode

Theoretical and experimental investigations were made of an optical traveling-wave amplifier based on an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure operating in the cw and pulsed regimes at room temperature. An investigation of the amplifier characteristics showed that the maximum gain in the active region was 38 dB and it was limited by saturation due to spontaneous emission. The total gain was 14 dB. The spectral width of the gain band reached 3.6×10³ GHz when the nonuniformity of the frequency characteristic amounted to 3 dB.