Suppression of interferometric crosstalk and ASE noise using a polarization multiplexing technique and an SOA

Noise suppression at 10 Gbit/s and 20 Gbit/s is demonstrated using a gain saturated semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and a polarization multiplexing technique, where no impairments like waveform distortion and extinction ratio degradation caused by the gain saturation of the SOA appear. Moreover, the method is bit rate transparent and the input power dynamic range is very large. Furthermore, the SOA can provide a high gain.