Theory of noise accumulation in linear optical-amplifier chains

The noise properties of the two main kinds of linear optical amplifier, phase-insensitive and phase-sensitive, are reviewed, with particular emphasis on their minimum-noise limits. An optical communications link is considered, in which identical sections of attenuating fiber alternate with identical linear amplifiers. The limits on the overall signal-to-noise ratios of such chains are derived. More attention is paid to the signal-to-noise ratio appropriate to phase-sensitive detection, but some results for direct detection are also given.