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Quantum Electronics

Intrinsic spontaneous emission-induced fluctuations of the output optical beam power and phase in a diode amplifier

Alexander P. Bogatov, Alexander E. Drakin, N V D'yachkov, T I Gushchik

Published Aug 22, 2016• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Output optical beam intensity and phase fluctuations are analysed in a classical approach to describing the propagation and amplification of spontaneous emission in the active region of a laser diode with a gain saturated by input monochromatic light. We find their spectral densities and dispersion and the correlation coefficient of the two-dimensional probability distribution function of the fluctuations.

DOI
10.1070/qel16131

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Output optical beam intensity and phase fluctuations are analysed in a classical approach to describing the propagation and amplification of spontaneous emission in the active region of a laser diode with a gain saturated by input monochromatic light. We find their spectral densities and dispersion and the correlation coefficient of the two-dimensional probability distribution function of the fluctuations.
Expressions for the amplitudes of amplified spontaneous emission waves in a diode amplifier near the frequency of a 'strong' input monochromatic wave have been derived in terms of a random function of a stationary Gaussian process. We have found expressions for the spectral density of the amplitudes and shown that, on the red side of the spectrum with respect to frequency , spontaneous emission waves obtain additional nonlinear gain, induced by the strong wave, whereas on the blue side of the spectrum an additional loss is induced. Such behaviour of the amplitudes of amplified waves agrees with previous results.
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.
Intensity fluctuation characteristics of amplified-spontaneous emission are found using intensity rate equations and the noise-amplifier approximation for saturation coupling between two and four competing modes. The existence of more than one mode leads to the retention of relatively large fluctuations in each mode even as the amplifier gain is saturated, an operating regime which by contrast has been shown to reduce significantly the fluctuations when only a single beam is present. The noise-amplifier approximation is found to be an adequate approximation of the effects of the spontaneous emission distributed along the length of a laser amplifier. The intensity fluctuations in all cases approach limiting distributions functions as the amplifier becomes heavily saturated. Characteristics of these limiting distributions are found for one, two, and four beams; for combinations of beams copropagating and counterpropagating; in the presence and absence of loss; for differences in gain; and for saturation of the sources due to high intensities.
The intensity fluctuations in the output of a saturable optical amplifier are studied as the amplifier length is increased. Characteristics are determined by calculation of the diagonal elements of the density matrix of the optical field. Saturation affecting both upper-state and lower-state atomic populations is considered. Spontaneous emission distributed along the amplifier causes the "photon-number" distribution to approach a Bose-Einstein distribution during linear amplification if the input field is not Bose-Einstein. The onset of saturation reduces the relative fluctuations of the optical field both by introducing nonlinear gain and by reducing the spontaneous emission. Limiting solutions show that strong saturation leads to a major reduction in the fluctuations causing the photon-number distribution to approach a Poisson distribution.
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.
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.