Impact of crosstalk induced beat noise on the size of semiconductor laser amplifier based optical space switch structures

The size limitation of a semiconductor laser amplifier (SLA) based optical matrix-vector multiplier (MVM) switch structure arising from amplifier noise and crosstalk is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Computer simulation reveals that the number of input/output channels in such a switch structure may be limited to less than 60/spl times/60 if the contrast ratio of each SLA is 20 dB or lower.