OPTICAL AMPLIFIER EVALUATION METHOD AND OPTICAL AMPLIFIER EVALUATION DEVICE

摘要

An optical amplifier evaluation method wherein, after the light outputted from a light source (1) is modulated by a light modulator (23) into a rectangular wave light signal which is turned on/off in a predetermined cycle, the light signal is applied to an optical fiber amplifier (2) which is an object to be measured, and the gain and noise factor of the optical fiber amplifier are obtained from the respective light intensities in the on-period and off-period of the light signal outputted from the optical fiber amplifier and the light intensity in the on-period of the light signal inputted to the optical fiber amplifier. The light outputted from the optical fiber amplifier in a no-input state is transmitted through a light path from the light source to the optical fiber amplifier and a light path from the optical fiber amplifier to a light intensity measurement position to obtain the light losses of the respective paths, and the respective light intensities are corrected by using the obtained light losses. By this method, the gain G and noise factor NF of the optical fiber amplifier (2) can be obtained with high precision.