Intensity noise suppression in spectrum-sliced incoherent light communication systems using a gain-saturated semiconductor optical amplifier

Using a gain-saturated semiconductor optical amplifier, we have suppressed the intensity noise in spectrum-sliced incoherent light communication systems. A large increase has been achieved in the signal-to-noise ratio that is much better than previous results to our knowledge. Using this technique, we have transmitted a 0.36-nm bandwidth 2.5-Gb/s incoherent light signal over 20 km of conventional single-mode fiber without any dispersion compensation. The transmission penalty was 1.5 dB and the error floor level was less than 10/sup -10/.