Noise power spectra of optical two-beam interferometers induced by the laser phase noise

Dynamic range of many optical signal processing and sensing devices incorporating two-beam interferometers (such as Mach-Zehnder and Michelson interferometers) can be limited by random phase fluctuations of the optical source emission field. This paper is concerned with the intensity fluctuations, originating from the laser source phase noise, at the output of a two-beam interferometer. Closed-form theoretical expressions are presented for the autocovariance function, variance, and noise power spectral density of the instantaneous output intensity which are valid for any optical biasing phase and any source coherence time. Application of the results in the noise performance evaluation of optical devices incorporating two-beam interferometers will also be shown.