Abstract

It is well known that amplifier noise can limit the accuracy of optical measurements. Standard theories for ideal, phase-insensitive optical amplifiers predict that the amplification process will impress 3 dB of additional (excess) noise on the amplified laser beam.¹ Recently D’Ariano et al.² showed theoretically that this may not be the case for a saturated amplifier. They predict that as little as 0.5 dB of excess noise need be impressed on the amplified beam for specific values of the saturation parameter and amplifier length.

© 1997 Optical Society of America