Abstract
We have studied superluminescent diodes (SLDs) and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) based on an (AlxGa1-x)As/GaAs single quantum well structure with an Al content x ∼ 0.1 in a 10-nm-thick active layer. Depending on the length of the active channel, the single-mode fibre coupled cw output power of the SLDs is 1 to 30 mW at a spectral width of about 50 nm. The width of the optical gain band in the active channel exceeds 40 nm. Preliminary operating life tests have demonstrated that the devices are sufficiently reliable.