A RIN REDUCED BROADBAND LIGHT SOURCE EMPLOYING SOA IN SATURATION

摘要

A relative intensity noise (RIN) suppressed light source is provided that includes a broadband light source like an Er-doped fiber amplifier (56) emitting incoherent incoming light. A semiconductor optical amplifier (72,74) receives this incoming light and provides reduction of the RIN at its output. The SOA is working in the strong saturation regime and due to the short carrier lifetime in the SOA it acts like a high-pass filter for the light intensity of the incoming light. Cascading multiple SOA may improve the RIN reduction. The light source with reduced RIN level may be used in OCT applications.