Four-Wave Mixing Crosstalk Measurement in a Highly Doped L-Band Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier by Using Half of the Signal Channels

We propose a four-wave mixing (FWM) crosstalk measurement method for a signal with 50 GHz spaced wavelength channels in a highly doped L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). The method uses the crosstalk measured by using a signal with 100 GHz spaced wavelength channels. This approach is based on analyses of the channel spacing dependence of FWM signal generation and the effect of the gain evolution of each signal channel along the EDF during FWM signal generation at a specific frequency. It is shown that reducing the channel spacing from 100 to 50 GHz has little impact on the efficiency of FWM generation if the gain evolution is the dominant term in FWM generation. It is also shown that the contributing ratio of the gain evolution of each channel is almost the same for the two signals. These results enable us to develop a measurement method for estimating the FWM crosstalk in an L-band EDFA applied to a wavelength-division multiplexing system with a 50 GHz spaced signal by using a 100 GHz spaced signal and a compensation factor. The validity of the measurement method is successfully demonstrated experimentally.