Noise characterization of a neodymium-doped fluoride fiber amplifier and its performance in a 2.4 Gb/s system

An analysis of noise in a neodymium-doped single-mode fluoride fiber amplifier for the 1300-nm telecommunications window has been carried out both theoretically and experimentally. The presence of signal-excited state absorptions, particularly at the shorter wavelength end of the gain transition, has been shown to increase the noise figure and, hence, degrade the overall system performance. However, when the amplifier was used as a power amplifier in a 2.4-Gb/s laboratory system experiment, no degradation at a BER of 10/sup -9/ could be observed.<
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