Power penalty due to optical reflections in erbium-doped fiber preamplifier

The effect of optical reflections in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) is investigated primarily as they are used for preamplifying the received signal in a digital transmission system. Both an increase in amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) due to its multiple reflection and an increase in relative noise intensity (RIN) due to interferometric phase-to-intensity-noise conversion are considered as sources of degradation of the receiver sensitivity. The power penalty is calculated and confirmed experimentally.>