The effect of dispersion on spectral broadening of incoherent continuous-wave light in optical fibers

In addition to fiber nonlinearity, fiber dispersion plays a significant role in spectral broadening of incoherent continuous-wave light. In this paper we have performed a numerical analysis of spectral broadening of incoherent light based on a fully stochastic model. Under a wide range of operating conditions, these numerical simulations exhibit striking features such as damped oscillatory spectral broadening (during the initial stages of propagation), and eventual convergence to a stationary, steady state spectral distribution at sufficiently long propagation distances. In this study we analyze the important role of fiber dispersion in such phenomena. We also demonstrate an analytical rate equation expression for spectral broadening. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America