Performance Analysis of Four Wave Mixing: A Non-Linear Effect in Optical fibers

Abstract

Non-Linear effects in Optical fibers are caused due to the refractive index of the optical medium's dependence on the intensity of light. One of the prominent non-linear effects in Optical fibers is the Four-wave mixing (FWM) phenomenon. FWM effect is resonant when the phase matching condition is satisfied. It only occurs for particular combinations of fiber dispersion and signal frequencies. The FWM is a very unpleasant transmission phenomenon occurring in a transparent optical network based on Dense Wave Division Multiplexing, but it could be used advantageously for implementing optical devices such as wavelength converters, parametric amplifiers, optical de-multiplexers, chromatic dispersion compensators, as well as signal to noise regenerators. This paper discusses the effect of channel spacing, laser power, and dispersion, length of the optical fiber and the variation of input power to compensate the effect of FWM when implemented in a short haul environment.

Analysis of the Nonlinear Impairments on the DWDM Optical Communication Systems

“…This effect depends on the nonlinear part of the refractive index (n) causing the refractive index to increase with the high signal power which produces the undesired output affects such as four wave mixing (FWM), self-phase modulation (SPM) and cross-phase modulation (XPM) [6]. The scattering effects caused by the atoms and molecules that form the material, lead to optical power loss and can be categorized into two types; stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and stimulated Brillion scattering (SBS) [7].…”