Laser phase noise to intensity noise conversion by lowest-order group-velocity dispersion in optical fiber: exact theory.

An exact result for the spectral density of intensity variations that occur after propagation of ergodic light in a medium having lowest-order-only group-velocity dispersion is obtained and applied to the problem of semiconductor laser phase noise to intensity noise conversion in a single-mode optical fiber. It is shown that the intensity spectrum after propagation formally approaches, for a large laser linewidth or a long (or high-dispersion) fiber, the intensity spectrum of a thermal source having the same line shape as the laser.