Abstract

Four-photon mixing (FPM) constitutes one of the most restrictive nonlinear phenomena in optical fibers. Therefore it has been the subject of many theoretical and experimental studies. However, the majority of these studies have considered just the physics of FPM.¹·² Only a few investigations have been reported on the actual impact on the design of multichannel optical communication systems.^3,4 For the first time to our knowledge we present analytic expressions that determine the possible fiber-input-power range for a system with an arbitrary number of channels and an arbitrary amplifier spacing, taking into account the phase relations between different channels.

© 1993 Optical Society of America