Components for 40 Gbit/s systems

We have reported high power 40 Gbit/s electroabsorption modulators at 1550 nm and 1300 nm and their application to transmission over SMF-28. Time averaged output powers of up to 2.8 dBm were achieved with low dispersion penalty, allowing the generation of significant margin at 1550 nm, and 40-km loss limited transmission at 1310 nm. These results illustrate the huge potential for electroabsorption modulators in a wide variety of system applications including short reach, intermediate reach and dispersion managed systems.