Optical Gian vs Electrical Gain

[narra]

Hi,
I was wondering what the trade-offs were in having an optical gain (say with EDFA) compared to electrical gain (say with a PIN and transimpedance amplifier) of an optical signal.
Thanks.

 

[narra]

Is it possible to turn a very coherent signal into one much less

Hi,

I am curious to know if there any passive (or simple active) methods to convert a very coherent signal into an incoherent one? I suppose I would need to find a way to chirp the signal and a non-linear medium might be one method. Any ideas?

Thanks

narra

 

[Claude Bile]

For coherent optical signals, a component called a diffuser is normally used to reduce the coherence.

Regarding your first post, optical gain has a much higher bandwidth than electrical gain.

Claude.

 

[narra]

Hi Sorry, I somehow posted a question within another post. Thanks for your reply on both though. I have a few more things to ask based on your answers if you don't mind.

Post 1: When you say optical gain is much higher bandwidth, do you mean in terms of gain available across and optical bandwidth or temporally?

Post 2: Is a diffuser more to break the spatial coherence? If so, how does this impart temporal coherence?

Or

perhaps to stimulate higher order modes; forming "Speckle"?

Regards,

narra