Nonlinear Coefficient Of Optical Fibers At 1550 Nm.

A major revolution in lightwave transmission system is occuring with the advent of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. They have allowed transmission over transoceanic distances without the need of electronic repeaters and enabled high speed, multiwavelength terrestrial transmission systems. On the other hand, the use of optical amplifiers has increased the optical signal power to a point where nonlinear effects start to become important and impose serious limitations to system performance. The magnitude of the major nonlinear effects, self-phase modulation (SPM) and four-wave mixing (FWM), depend on the nonlinear coefficient n2/Aeff for telecommunication fibers.