Temperature dependence of a 1300 nm polarization-insensitive multiple quantum well laser amplifier and its implications for the ultimate capacity of cascaded amplifier systems

The temperature characteristics of a 1300 nm polarization-insensitive multiple quantum well laser amplifer are investigated at a constant level of the amplified spontaneous emission. Upon increasing the amplifier temperature from O/spl deg/C to 40/spl deg/C, a 20% increase in the gain bandwidth and a twofold increase in the saturation output power, due to an increase in Auger recombination, are observed. The implications of these results on the ultimate capacity of cascaded amplifier systems is evaluated using the concept of the maximum length amplifier cascade. When operated at 40/spl deg/C, this length extends to 6000 km, which is of great relevance for the design of 1300 mm soliton systems, because these short pulses are considered to be able to traverse these large lengths of optical fiber without distortion.<>