40 Gbit/s optical 2R regenerator based on passive saturable absorber for WDM long-haul transmissions

A semiconductor saturable absorber based on ion-irradiated quantum-well vertical cavity is implemented in a 40 Gbit/s dispersion-managed RZ loop, yielding a Q-factor of 13 dB and 11.3 dB at 7600 km distance in single-channel and in WDM environment with five 200 GHz-spaced 40 Gbit/s channels, respectively.