Photodiode 1/f noise and other types of less known baseband noises in optical telecommunications devices

Abstract

A technique to measure low frequency noise in illuminated photodiodes is presented, and some 1/f noise results are given for InGaAs devices. The ability of photodiodes to convert laser noise into RF noise is also discussed, together with other types of 1/f noise arising directly from the optical fiber, and particularly from scattering phenomena inside the fiber.

Thermal Noise-Limited Fiber-Optic Sensing at Infrasonic Frequencies

“…If the detector pass band is set to 0.1-100 Hz, this current density generates an rms current variation of i rms = 271 nA. This level of signal should be well above the typical ranges of flicker noise [25], [28], which is the dominant detector noise in the baseband, and dark current. Finally, we evaluate the shot noise caused by the photons.…”

“…For a 1-mm fiber FP cavity with a finesse of 1000 and a 1-mW input power, the optimum electrical frequency discriminant is approximately 26.3 pA/Hz (assuming a 1 A/W detector responsivity), which translates the thermomechanical frequency noise in (3) into a 1/ f current noise of 15.6/ √ f nA/ √ Hz. Probing a current noise of this level requires special attention to the detector noise because both the dark current (typically 0.1-50 nA) and the flicker noise fall into comparable ranges [25].…”

Comparison of Compensation Mechanism Between an NMR Gyroscope and an SERF Gyroscope

“…The results show that the scale factor of NMR gyroscope is about 4.05·10 -3 mA/°/h while that of SERF gyroscope is about 6.24·10 -3 mA/°/h. Considering the technical 1/f noise from laser and photodiode [13], [14], the corresponding bias stabilities of NMR and SERF gyroscope are estimated to be 0.003°/h and 0.002°/h, respectively.…”

Photodiode nonlinear modeling and its impact on optical links phase noise

“…The laser amplitude noise (AM noise) will be more easily converted into phase noise by any component for which the transit time depends on the optical power, and this is the case of the photodiode [5]. The optical fiber may also generate a low frequency phase fluctuation, if it is long enough (a few kilometers) and if it is fed with a relatively high optical power [6]. This is due to phenomena such as Rayleigh scattering or Brillouin scattering.…”