Analysis of wideband amplified spontaneous emission noise in linear optical amplifiers

A steady-state LOAs model with vertical-cavity lasers (VCL) is established, which take into account the wideband noise, the facet reflectivity and the longitudinal spatial hole-burning. Total amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) output power, the noise figure (NF), the forward and backward ASE photon rates and ASE spectral at different input power and distributed Brogg reflector (DBR) reflectivity are numerically simulated. Results indicate that, compared with semiconductor optical amplifier (SOAs), LOA's ASE noise is well clamped before gain saturation occurs, ASE noise has almost same value while input signal power increased. The clamp effect of VCL is destroyed at gain saturation, NF increases with a rate less than that of SOA. The total ASE output power decreases with increasing DBR reflectivity, but NF increases.