High-power 1.3-μm InGaAsP-InP amplifiers with tapered gain regions

Tapered structures fabricated in InGaAsP-InP 1.3-μm quantum-well material have been evaluated as high-gain high-saturation-power amplifiers. The devices, which had a 1-mm-long ridge-waveguide input gain section followed by a 2-mm-long tapered section, demonstrated an unsaturated gain of 26 dB at 2.0 A and about 30 dB at 2.8 A. Saturated output power at 2.8 A was >750 mW. At 2.0-A drive current and /spl ap/10-mW input power, the relative intensity noise of the amplified signal was /spl les/-160 dB/Hz at frequencies /spl ges/2 GHz.