Broad-bandwidth near-shot-noise-limited intensity noise suppression of a single-frequency fiber laser.

A significant broad-bandwidth near-shot-noise-limited intensity noise suppression of a single-frequency fiber laser is demonstrated based on a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) with optoelectronic feedback. By exploiting the gain saturation effect of the SOA and the intensity feedback loop, a maximum noise suppression of over 50 dB around the relaxation oscillation frequencies and a suppression bandwidth of up to 50 MHz are obtained. The relative intensity noise of -150  dB/Hz in the frequency range from 0.8 kHz to 50 MHz is achieved, which approaches the shot-noise limit. The obtained optical signal-to-noise ratio is more than 70 dB. This near-shot-noise-limited laser source shows important implications for the advanced fields of high-precision frequency stabilization, quantum key distribution, and gravitational wave detection.