Agilent Technologies 86038A User Manual page 68

Making Measurements
68
Erbium Doped Fiber (Unpumped)
Characteristics
• High loss (up to 10's of dB's)
• Low dispersion (very slight change in group delay over wavelength)
• Broadband device
• Little if any fine group delay structure
Measurement Tips
• The high loss of this device degrades the signal to noise, making it necessary to
combat the noise with various setup conditions. For best signal to noise, select
2000 MHz modulation frequency.
• Improve signal to noise by using a narrower IF bandwidth (70 Hz or even 30 Hz)
and a larger number of samples.
• Reduce trace noise by means of the built-in smoothing functions.
• Swept mode gathers a large number of points to smooth, taking advantage of
the smoothing function. However, the step mode allows taking and averaging a
large number of samples at each wavelength, also reducing the noise. Try both
modes to find the best trade-off of accuracy and measurement speed.
Choosing Setup Parameters for Your Device
Agilent 86038A Optical Dispersion Analyzer, Third Edition