Abstract

Very-high-capacity long-haul optical communication systems without intermediate optoelectronic conversions can be conceived by using erbium-doped-fiber amplifiers and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). The effects of chromatic dispersion and nonlinearities, however, accumulate during propagation, thus severely limiting the achievable performance. The use of dispersion-shifted fiber permits higher bit rates but enhances the efficiency of four-wave-mixing (FWM) wave generation by reducing the phase mismatch that is naturally provided by the fiber dispersion,¹ thus causing FWM to become the dominant nonlinear effect.²

© 1993 Optical Society of America