Ultra-Wideband Transmission Systems Based on Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

Extending the bandwidth of optical amplifiers is a promising approach to increase the throughput of wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) systems. We review recent ultra-wideband (UWB) experiments and discuss the interest of using UWB semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) for future transmission systems. We report on UWB SOA characteristics and discuss recent results of a 300 km transmission experiment over standard single mode fiber (SSMF), using a hybrid Raman and SOA repeater.