1480-NM PUMPED ERBIUM-DOPED FIBER AMPLIFIERS WITH OPTIMIZED NOISE PERFORMANCE FOR AM-VSB DISTRIBUTION-SYSTEMS

Within analog video transmission systems, optical amplifiers have to d isplay simultaneously good noise and output power performance because of the very stringent carrier-to-noise ratio requirements imposed by t he AM-VSB modulation format. We show, theoretically and experimentally , that properly designed forward 1480-nm pumped erbium-doped fiber amp lifiers can deliver + 16 dBm saturated output power with noise paramet er (n(sp)/C1) as low as 3.5 dB. These amplifiers do not exhibit signif icant degradation of their noise performance when the input powers are as large as +3 dBm. These characteristics make 1480-nm pumped amplifi ers suitable for AM-VSB transmission systems.