Abstract

Modulational instability (MI), a phenomenon in which a weak amplitude perturbation will exponentially grow due to the gain caused by an interplay between fibre nonlinearity and dispersion, has attracted many researchers. The main source of MI is noise. Its effect is that a cw input signal is broken into trains of sub-picosecond pulses [1]. Erbium doped fibre amplifiers (EDFAs) have become important components in optical systems. The amplified spontaneous emission in EDFA and accumulation of noise in cascaded amplifiers, produce an appropriate environment for the generation of MI.

© 1994 Optical Society of America