A high SNR partially coherent beam source based on supercontinuum for free space data transmission.

We experimentally demonstrate a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) partially coherent beam (PCB) source based on wide-spectrum produced by a filtered supercontinuum (SC) which can generate from a segment of highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) pumped by a picosecond fiber laser. The SNR of PCB source can improve from 12.43 dB to 22.45 dB by filtering out amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise of erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and using lower power pumped HNLF. We also conduct a 4 Gbit/s transmission experiment using the high SNR PCB source in 1km simulated atmospheric turbulent channel. The characteristics of scintillation indexes (SIs), eye patterns, SNRs and bit error rates (BER) based on CB source and PCB sources after turbulent channel are analyzed. In Δ T = 240 ° C , atmospheric turbulent channel, the SI of the CB link can reduce by 31% by using PCB source. The SNR of PCB source is 8.15 dB higher than the 5.20 dB of the CB source, and the sensitivity of the PCB source has a 2.9 dB improvement compared with the CB source. The PCB source possess high SNR and turbulence resistance, which can improve the performance of free space data transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]