Physical Review A
Suppression of classical intensity fluctuations via competing nonlinear processes in an optical fiber
John R. Thompson
Abstract
The noise-transformation properties of competing four-wave-mixing processes in an optical fiber are numerically investigated for an input signal with two frequency components, ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{1}$ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{2}$. When pulses from such a source propagate through a single-mode optical fiber, the two input frequency components can mix to form symmetric pairs of sidebands at ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{3}$=2${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{1}$-${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{2}$, ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{4}$=2${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{2}$-${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{1}$, ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{5}$=2${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{3}$-${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{1}$, and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{6}$=2${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{4}$-${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{2}$. Noise that was initially confined to the input frequencies ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{1}$ and ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{2}$ is redistributed to the sidebands in a way that reduces the relative intensity fluctuations of the input frequencies, when the fiber length is judiciously chosen.