1480-nm pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifiers with optimized noise performance for AM-VSB distribution systems

Within analog video transmission systems, optical amplifiers have to display simultaneously good noise and output power performance because of the very stringent carrier-to-noise ratio requirements imposed by the AM-VSB modulation format. We show, theoretically and experimentally, that properly designed forward 1480-nm pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifiers can deliver +16 dBm saturated output power with noise parameter (n/sub sp//C/sub x/) as low as 3.5dB. These amplifiers do not exhibit significant degradation of their noise performance when the input powers are as large as +3 dBm. These characteristics make 1480-nm pumped amplifiers suitable for AM-VSB transmission systems.>