Effects of gain ripples in semiconductor optical amplifiers on very high speed lightwave systems

An experimental and theoretical study of the effects of gain ripples in semiconductor optical amplifiers on lightwave systems at data rates in excess of 10 Gb/s is discussed. Significant system degradations, or even complete eye closure, occurred in an 11 Gb/s system due to the effect of large amplifier gain variations on the signals from a directly modulated distributed-feedback laser. >