High-sensitivity optical preamplifier for WDM systems using an optical parametric amplifier

We propose and demonstrate a novel preamplifier to improve receiver sensitivity for a 10-Gb/s return-to-zero on-off keying format by using a fiber optical parametric amplifier. Receiver sensitivity can reach down to -42 dBm at bit-error rate = 10-9 This sensitivity is only 1.1 dB off the quantum limit. The crosstalk issue is also investigated for this dual-end detection scheme in a wavelength-division-multiplexing system. © 2009 IEEE.published_or_final_versio