Correlation between emission and relative intensity noise spectral profiles of an Er-doped fiber superfluorescent source

Abstract

The spectral characteristics of the relative intensity noise (RIN) of two amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) sources are experimentally measured. An Er-doped fiber superfluorescent source (EDF-SFS) is investigated and compared with a super-luminescent diode (SLD) source, using a simple tunable fiber Bragg grating filter-based system. Experimental results based on normal ASE operation conditions showed that the RIN distribution of the EDF-SFS is correlated with its emission spectral profile, which is different from the results observed using the SLD source. This finding shows for the first time that an EDF-SFS based ASE has fundamentally different RIN characteristics from other known existing spontaneous emission broadband sources. The amplifying process of the EDF-SFS is discussed and confirmed using a rate equation-based simulation.