Low noise optical multi-carrier generation using optical-FIR filter for ASE noise suppression in re-circulating frequency shifter loop

In this paper, an improved multi-carrier generation scheme based on single-side-band recirculating frequency shifter with optical finite impulse response (FIR) filter for amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise suppression is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The carrier-to-noise-ratio (CNR) instead of tone-to-noise-ratio (TNR) is introduced to more reasonably and exactly evaluate the signal-to-noise-ratio of a multi-carrier source with non-flat noise floor. We have experimentally attain the worst case CNR of 22.5dB and 19.1dB for generated 50 and 69 flat low noise carriers, which has shown significant improvement than the previous cited works based on recirculating frequency shifter.