Effective area

A _e

50 mm ²

Pulse envelope

A(z, t)

Fiber core radius

a

4 mm (SMF)

Bit rate

B

Mb/s or Gb/s

Electrical bandwidth

B _e

GHz

Optical bandwidth

B _o

GHz

Bit error rate

BER

10 ⁹ 10 ^-15

Normalized effective index

b

Capacitance

C

mF (microfarad)

Speed of light in vacuum

c

3 10 ⁸ m/s

Dispersion parameter

D

ps/nm-km

Electric flux density

D

coulombs/m ²

Material dispersion

D _M

ps/nm-km

Polarization-mode dispersion

D _PMD

ps/

Waveguide dispersion

D _W

ps/nm-km

Dispersion-shifted fiber

DSF

D = 0 (1.55 mm)

Electric field

E

V/m

Energy level

E

differences, D E, expressed in nm using D E = hc/ l

Electronic charge

e

1.6 10 ^-19 coulombs

Amplifier noise figure

F

dB

Finesse

F

Optical carrier frequency

f _c

THz

Pump frequency

f _p

THz

Signal frequency

fs

THz

Amplifier gain

G

Amplifier unsaturated gain

Gmax

Brillouin gain coefficient

g _B

4 10 ¹¹ m/W

Raman gain coefficient

g _R

6 10 ¹⁴ m/W

Magnetic field

H

A/m

Planck s constant

h

6.63 10 ³⁴ J/Hz

Photocurrent

I _p

mA or nA

Thermal noise current

I _th

3 pA/

Boltzmann s constant

k _B

1.38 10 ²³ J/ K

Dispersion length

L D

km