High-fidelity replication of short optical pulses in an optical fiber loop using a semiconductor optical amplifier

We have proposed a simple and convenient gain control scheme of the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) utilizing the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from the SOA itself. Based upon this scheme, an optical pulse active replicator using a SOA could be used for high-fidelity replication of short analog optical pulses. Taking into account the ASE noise, a numerical model of the SOA is developed to investigate the optical pulse recirculating propagation in the active replicator. Results indicate that the replicator is feasible and effective. Selecting appropriately operating parameters, such as the loss within the loop, the power of signal pulse and the front-end receiver electrical bandwidth, the replicator can generate a sequence of precise periodic optical pulse trains with low distortion and good SNR.