Impact of laser intensity noise on ASK two-port optical homodyne receivers

The letter describes initial experimental results obtained with a multiport optical homodyne receiver employing a DFB laser. The receiver performance is found to be limited by the intensity noise of the local oscillator rather than by the phase noise, even when the product of the IF linewidth and the bit duration is as large as 0.56. A relative intensity noise level of at least ¿ 140dB/Hz will be required for a satisfactory receiver performance with ¿ 15dBm local oscillator power.