Monolithically integrated gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifier exploiting Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration

A novel, monolithically integrated gain-clamped semiconductor optical amplifier exploiting a Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration for spatial separation of travelling-wave signal and clamping laser light is demonstrated. The allowed total signal input power for undistorted multichannel amplification is improved by 16 dB to +1 dBm.