Incoherent resonant seeding of modulation instability in optical fiber.

We report control of the spectral and noise properties of spontaneous modulation instability (MI) in optical fiber using an incoherent seed with power at the 10(-6) level relative to the pump. We sweep the seed wavelength across the MI gain band, and observe significant enhancement of MI bandwidth and improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio as the seed coincides with the MI gain peak. We also vary the seed bandwidth and find a reduced effect on the MI spectrum as the seed coherence decreases. Stochastic nonlinear Schrödinger equation simulations of spectral and noise properties are in excellent agreement with experiment.