Optical preamplifier using antireflection-coating-free semiconductor optical amplifier with signal-inverted ASE

We fabricated an antireflection (AR)-coating-free semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) with an absorbing region for an optical preamplifier. In the fabricated SOA, the resonance of light was fully suppressed so that the amplitude of the ripple of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectra was as small as 0.36 dB, which is comparable to conventional SOAs with AR coating at both facets. We formed an optical preamplifier using the AR-coating-free SOA. The gain saturation of the SOA gives us the signal conversion to ASE and the amplification of the signal. The small-signal fiber-to-fiber and chip gain of the preamplifier were 11.4 and 20.0 dB, respectively. The 3-dB optical gain bandwidth of the preamplifier was about 30 nm.