Impact of pump phase modulation on system performance of fibre-optical parametric amplifiers

Bit error rate induced in a parametric amplifier has been measured with a 10 Gbit=s line rate. It is shown experimentally that the phase modulation of the pump distorts the mark level of the channel and may cause system penalty. Different phase modulation schemes have been compared

Zero-dispersion Wavelength Mapping in Short Single-Mode Optical Fibers Using Parametric Amplification

We demonstrate a novel convenient nondestructive method based on optical parametric amplification that allows retrieval of the zero-dispersion wavelength map along a short optical fiber span with a high-spatial resolution. The improved resolution relies on the high sensitivity to the local longitudinal dispersion fluctuations of the parametric high-gain spectrum.Comment: 3 page

Impact of pump OSNR on noise figure for fiber-optical parametric amplifiers

Electrical measurements of the noise figure of a fiberoptical parametric amplifier are presented and compared with optical measurements. The transfer of pump noise by four-wave mixing was clearly demonstrated. A numerical model was developed to simulate the transfer of pump noise and validated by these measurements. Using this model, we determine, for practical systems, a minimum required pump optical signal-to-noise ratio of 65 dB

Filamentation and Pulse Self-compression in the Anomalous Dispersion Region of Glasses

International audienceThe propagation of near-infrared ultra-short laser pulses in the regime of anomalous dispersion of transparent solids is associated with a host of self-induced effects including a significant spectral broadening extending from the ultraviolet into the infrared region, pulse self-compression down to few-cycle pulse durations, free and driven third harmonic generation, conical emission and the formation of stable filaments over several cm showing the emergence of conical light bullets. We review measurements performed in different experimental conditions and results of numerical simulations of unidirectional propagation models showing that the interpretation of all these phenomena proceed from the formation of non-spreading conical light bullets during filamentation

Dazzling sensitivity analysis of a microbolometer array on an infrared laser irradiation breadboard

International audienceLaser sources have evolved towards lower cost and higher power, and the risk of imaging system disturbance due to laser dazzling effects can no more be ignored. In this paper we first present an experimental bench which has been developed specifically to perform dazzling experiments on infrared focal plane arrays. With this breadboard, dazzling experiments have been conducted on various types of focal plane arrays. We will focus on results obtained on a standard microbolometer array. The main parameters affecting dazzling phenomena were varied and conclusions on the dazzling phenomena are proposed. Since the major impact of laser pulses on microbolometer focal plane is due to heating, a first and simple phenomenological model of laser dazzling of these uncooled detectors is presented. Moreover thanks to the high level of performance of this breadboard, a new method is described for the direct measurement of the thermal time constant of the microbolometer array

Simple method for crosstalk reduction in fiber optical parametric amplifiers

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