Four-wave mixing of incoherent light in a dispersion-shifted fiber using a spectrum-sliced fiber amplifier light source

We investigate the FWM efficiency of incoherent light in a dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) using a spectrum-sliced fiber amplifier light source. A theoretical model is provided to describe the FWM mechanism of incoherent light. The FWM efficiencies of coherent and incoherent light are compared theoretically and experimentally. Unlike the FWM of coherent light, the FWM signals of incoherent light are mostly generated by nondegenerate FWM regardless of the number of input signals. Thus, when two input signals are mixed, incoherent light has about 6 dB higher mixing efficiency than coherent light due to the difference in their degeneracy factor.