Abstract

Since the late 1970s, there has been considerable interest in using semiconductor sources in various forms of fiber-optic systems. This trend has not only been driven by the small-size low-power requirements, ruggedness, and (potential) low cost of these devices but by some of the intrinsic properties of these devices. These device parameters include short coherence length for gyro applications, single-frequency operation, frequency modulation capability for demodulating interferometric outputs, as well as ease of fiber-optic pigtailing to both conventional and polarization preserving fibers. However, these semiconductor devices also have a substantial 1/f noise contribution in the frequency regime below ~1 MHz. Many interesting feedback phenomena have also been noted including effects from fiber scattering. In this paper, the noise properties of semiconductor devices and these devices coupled to fiber systems will be reviewed.

© 1985 Optical Society of America