EXPERIMENTAL DEMONSTRATION OF NOISE-FIGURE REDUCTION CAUSED BY NONLINEAR PHOTON STATISTICS OF SATURATED EDFAS

For the first time, experimental evidence is presented for the predict ion that the noise figure for an EDFA in the nonlinear or saturated re gime, calculated by measuring the ASE power, can lead to an overestima tion when compared to a direct measurement of the noise variance with an electrical spectrum analyzer, These results are in line with theori es based on the quantum mechanical photon master equation describing a n optical amplifier with saturated upper and lower ion inversion level s.