Polarization-insensitive lightwave receiver using optical amplifiers.

Performance of an optically preamplified, polarization-insensitive direct detection lightwave receiver is described. At lambda=1. 3micron and a bit rate of 4 Gbit/s, a receiver sensitivity of P bar sub 0 = -29.2 dBm was achieved. The variation in P bar sub 0 as a function of the state of polarization of the input signal was less than 0.3dB.