Analysis of laser phase noise to intensity noise conversion by chromatic dispersion in intensity modulation and direct detection optical-fiber transmission

Laser phase noise conversion to intensity noise due to fiber chromatic dispersion is analyzed by deriving the noise power spectral density. Theory predicts that the phase-modulation-amplitude-modulation conversion noise is a principal limiting factor of the gigabit-per-second nonregenerative transmission using an external modulator when the linewidth of the laser transmitter is above several tens of megahertz and the total chromatic dispersion of fibers exceeds several thousand picoseconds per nanometer. This fact is confirmed by the 2.4-Gb/s transmission experiments using multiple inline Er-doped fiber amplifiers. The system penalty due to this noise in the intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD) optical transmission using an external modulator is evaluated.< >