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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Intuitive classical approach of intensity noise in linear, phase-insensitive optical amplifiers

Virginie Dallot, Philippe B. Gallion

Published Jan 1, 2001• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. Papers have evaluated the intensity noise at linear phase-insensitive optical amplifier output and identified it as amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The contribution of input fluctuations and of the amplifier in output noise are not distinguishable, making impossible a description of squeezed-state amplification. Starting from a corpuscular approach of light and using Rice description of a coherent electromagnetic field, a new classical approach of intensity noise in amplifiers is proposed. It distinguishes the different sources of noise and evaluates their contribution in an intuitive but rigorous way. It also brings to the fore the effects of loss, intrinsic to the amplifier, in the intensity noise generation process. After reminding the corpuscular formalism of intensity noise and Rice representation of noise, the intensity noise at the output of linear, phase-insensitive optical amplifiers is deduced, followed by a reevaluation of the noise figure.

DOI
10.1109/cleo.2001.947830

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Summary form only given. Papers have evaluated the intensity noise at linear phase-insensitive optical amplifier output and identified it as amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The contribution of input fluctuations and of the amplifier in output noise are not distinguishable, making impossible a description of squeezed-state amplification. Starting from a corpuscular approach of light and using Rice description of a coherent electromagnetic field, a new classical approach of intensity noise in amplifiers is proposed. It distinguishes the different sources of noise and evaluates their contribution in an intuitive but rigorous way. It also brings to the fore the effects of loss, intrinsic to the amplifier, in the intensity noise generation process. After reminding the corpuscular formalism of intensity noise and Rice representation of noise, the intensity noise at the output of linear, phase-insensitive optical amplifiers is deduced, followed by a reevaluation of the noise figure.
Adopting a new classical approach, the additive noise power generated in optical amplifiers is calculated in terms of power spectral density. The classical formalism used combines a coruscular approach to a phase-amplitude description of the optical field. The noise contributions of the input field fluctuations, including zero-point fluctuations, and of the electron momentum fluctuations at optical frequency linked to the amplifier itself, are clearly identified. The excess of noise associated to coupling or built-in losses is determinated. The well-known result of the Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) is obtained for the laser amplifiers. This description is applied to linear phase-insensitive amplifiers and to inhomogeneous, nonlinear phase-insensitive Raman amplifier, pointing out the effects of gain compression and gain distribution. This new approach makes possible the treatment of the squeezed-state of light and the quadrature reduced noise amplifications.
Using the semiclassical approach the gain and the noise powers, associated to signal and, generated in optical Raman amplifiers, are estimated for forward and backward configurations. Because it combines a corpuscular approach to a phase-amplitude description of the optical field and of the associated noise, this classical formalism allows to identify, to distinguish and to evaluate the respective noise contributions linked, first, to incident fields, such as input zero-point fluctuations, and relative intensity noise associated to the pump, and to the amplifier itself due to the electron momentum fluctuations at the optical frequency. The contribution of Rayleigh backscattering and pump depletion effects are taken into account. For both configurations, the effects of gain and pump power distribution on noise generation are underlined. The determination of the origin and of the amount of intensity noise at the output constitutes a first step toward the amplification of signal with reduced noise amount in Raman amplifiers.
Using the semiclassical approach the gain and noise powers, associated to signal and, generated in optical Raman amplifiers, are estimated for forward and backward configurations. Because it combines a corpuscular approach to a phase-amplitude description of the optical field and of the associated noise, this classical formalism allows to identify, to distinguish and to evaluate the respective noise contributions linked, first, to incident fields, such as input zero-point fluctuations, and relative intensity noise associated to the pump, and to the amplifier itself due to the electron momentum fluctuations at the optical frequency. The contribution of Rayleigh backscattering and pump depletion effects are taken into account. For both configurations, the effects of gain and pump power distribution on noise generation are underlined. The determination of the origin and of the amount of intensity noise at the output constitutes a first step toward the amplification of signal with reduced noise amount in Raman amplifiers.
Introduction Most of the lightwave transmission systems operating today benefit fully from extensive deployment of optical amplifiers (OA). These components perform the amplification of optical intensity directly in the optical domain, without resorting to any electrical-domain regeneration. Optical amplifiers increase the average number of output photons per unit time by several orders of magnitude compared with the incoming signal intensity. However, as with every amplifying process, optical amplification cannot be achieved without paying back for the unavoidable noise power added to the signal intensity. As we will see in detail in Chapter 6, the optical amplification process comes with optical noise generated by spontaneous emission inside the active medium. The intensity of the optical signal is represented by the flux of the signal photon population. Conversely, the photons generated by the spontaneous emission process inside the optical cavity represent the noise photon population. The fundamental phenomenon supporting optical amplification is stimulated emission. The basic property of stimulated emission, making the great difference from spontaneous emission and enabling optical amplification, is the coherent nature of the photon generation process. Accordingly, both signal and noise photons go through the same multiplication process by means of stimulated emission. Unless the optical cavity where the stimulated emission takes place (the active cavity) presents selective features for enhancing the signal photon population relative to the spontaneous one, there is no way to avoid noise photons going through stimulated emission, filling most of the cavity population. As a consequence, both photon populations increase, leading respectively to amplified signal intensity and to amplified spontaneous emission intensity. It should be apparent that every noise photon can create a new identical noise photon as a result of stimulated emission, effectively increasing the noise intensity in the active optical cavity. This is the well-known mechanism of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise in optical amplification. Any improvement in the optical amplifier structure devoted to increasing stimulated over spontaneous emission will probably increase the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) at the cavity output. The spectrum of gain characteristic of the optical active medium is usually wide enough to support an efficient amplification of the broadband spontaneous emission spectrum, leading to the broadband ASE noise power spectral density.
We present joint investigations of relative intensity noise (RIN) and second-order coherence properties of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) generated by a superluminescent diode. We introduce a generalized intensity noise description for ASE sources that contains the shot noise contribution but also accounts for first- and second-order coherence properties reflecting the process of light generation. We find excellent agreement between pump-current-dependent RIN values and this new description, with the perspective of particular interesting consequences for the realization of low-noise broadband emitters.