Gain-clamped discrete Raman amplifier with suppressed low-frequency relative intensity noise pump-to-signal transfer

We demonstrate an optically gain-clamped discrete Raman amplifier with a suppressed low-frequency relative intensity noise transfer from pump sources to an input amplified signal, which is accomplished by employing a cascaded second-order Raman fiber resonator as an optical amplification. The input signal dynamic range for a 3-dB gain compression is controllable without affecting the clamping level. In addition, we find that the Raman net gain is unsusceptible to fiber parameters such as the gain and attenuation coefficients at the pump, first-, and second-order Stokes lines. These characteristics fit our proposed gain-clamped discrete Raman amplifier for practical deployment although it works at the expense of the efficiency.