Abstract

Semiconductor laser amplifiers (SCLAs) are expected to play an important role in future transmission and switching systems for various applications, such as optical preamplifiers and repeaters and in local area network applications as loss compensators and as gate switches for modulation and (using the feature of simultaneous amplification and detection) for intelligent switching and routing functions.^1-5 However, it would be of great interest if also a laser type transmitter could be based on the optical amplifier. Such a possibility would substantially increase the utility of near-traveling-wave (NTW) SCLAs in optical communications systems. The number of different structures for implementing amplifiers, detectors, gate switches, and transmitters would be reduced, thus simplifying the fabrication of various complex integrated photonics components.

© 1990 Optical Society of America