Optimization of a Raman/EDFA hybrid amplifier based on dual-order stimulated Raman scattering using a single-pump

Based on dual-order stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) of a single 1395 nm Raman fiber laser in 75 km single mode fiber and its corresponding dispersion compensation module, a hybrid Raman/Erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) for long wavelength band (L-band) amplification is realized by inserting a segment of EDF within the span. By comparing the performance of gain and noise in four hybrid amplifiers with different span configurations, we find that the distribution of the secondary L-band amplification obtained from the EDF along the link has a great influence on the performance of the hybrid amplifier. Both gain and noise performance of hybrid amplifier can be improved significantly by optimizing the location of the EDF. Moreover, we can extend the flat gain bandwidth from L-band to central wavelength band (C-band) plus L-band by recycling the residual first-order SRS to pump a segment of EDF with proper length.     

Optimally gain-flattened and dispersion-managed C + L-band hybrid amplifier using a single-wavelength pump laser

We propose a hybrid C-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and L-band Raman fiber amplifier (RFA) using a single pump laser diode. The optimum pump sharing ratio to EDFA/RFA is 1/10 with a total pump power of 660 mW. Using multiple fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) with various reflectivities at different positions along the dispersion compensation fiber, the optimum dispersion compensation and power equalization for C + L-band channels are simultaneously realized. With an input power of −20 dBm/ch, the signal power variation among the channels is reduced from 9.8 dB to less than ±0.5 dB. Two pump reflectors are introduced to increase the pumping efficiency.     

Design and fabrication of an intrinsically gain flattened Erbium doped fiber amplifier

We report design and subsequent fabrication of an intrinsically gain flattened Erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) based on a highly asymmetrical and concentric dual-core fiber, inner core of which was only partially doped. Phase-resonant optical coupling between the two cores was so tailored through optimization of its refractive index profile parameters that the longer wavelengths within the C-band experience relatively higher amplification compared to the shorter wavelengths thereby reducing the difference in the well-known tilt in the gains between the shorter and longer wavelength regions. The fabricated EDFA exhibited a median gain ?28 dB (gain excursion below ±2.2 dB within the C-band) when 16 simultaneous standard signal channels were launched by keeping the I/P level for each at −20 dBm/channel. Such EDFAs should be attractive for deployment in metro networks, where economics is a premium, because it would cut down the cost on gain flattening filter head.     

Single-stage gain-clamped L-band EDFA with C-band ASE saturating tone

We demonstrate a single-stage gain-clamped L-band Erbium-doped fiber amplifier with 1480 nm pump wavelength. The gain-clamping technique is achieved by utilizing the backward propagation of C-band amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). This unwanted noise is reflected back into the optical amplifier and its intensity is adjusted using the variable optical attenuator. The C-band ASE sets the population inversion level along the Erbium doped-fiber and limits the L-band signal amplification to a specific value. The whole optical bandwidth in L-band can be employed for signal amplification since the saturating tone is out of the band. The gain dynamic range of 11.7 dB is obtained between 21.7 and 10.0 dB with noise figure of less than 5.5 dB for signal power up to 2 dBm.     

Directivity influence of signals propagation through EDFA gain medium of Brillouin-erbium fiber laser

We experimentally demonstrate a multiwavelength Brillouin-erbium fiber laser in two configurations; uni-directional and bi-directional propagation of Brillouin pump and Brillouin Stokes signals through an Erbium-doped fiber gain. The influence of these configurations on the performance of the output parameters in terms of lasing threshold, output channel generation and tuning range of the generated output channels are investigated. We discovered that there is a trade-off between these two fiber laser configurations. The uni-directional amplifier configuration provides greater tuning range of 46.8 nm against 23 nm at maximum Brillouin pump power of 2 mW and 1480-nm pump power of 130 mW. On the other hand, the bi-directional amplifier configuration provides 13 output channels against 6 output channels obtained from the uni-directional amplifier configuration at the same pumping powers. Nevertheless, the bi-directional amplifier configuration requires much lower pump power to initiate lasing.     

Investigation of the optical gain and noise figure for multi-channel amplification in EDFA under optimized pump condition

We present the results of an investigation of optical gain and noise figure for simultaneous multi-channel amplification of an erbium doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) under optimized pump condition. Different pump configurations with varying input signal levels show interesting features on gain flatness. In the experiment, population inversion along the fibre length which determines the gain-spectra and noise characteristics of the amplifier is adjusted through optimized fibre length and injected pump power in order to minimize the gain-tilt at C-band. It is observed that bi-directional pumping manifests the best combination of low noise and high gain of EDFA which are useful as in-line repeaters in WDM network. We obtain 30 ± 1.5 dB intrinsically flat small signal gain from 1538 nm to 1558 nm band of wavelength with noise figure <4 dB for 16-channel simultaneous amplification in a single stage EDFA without gain flattening filter.     

Long-distance fiber Bragg grating sensor system with a high optical signal-to-noise ratio based on a tunable fiber ring laser configuration

A novel tunable fiber ring laser configuration with a combination of bidirectional Raman amplification and dual erbium-doped fiber (EDF) amplification is proposed for realizing high optical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), long-distance, quasi-distributed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing systems with large capacities and low cost. The hybrid Raman-EDF amplification configuration arranged in the ring laser can enhance the optical SNR of FBG sensor signals significantly owing to the good combination of the high gain of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and the low noise of the Raman amplification. Such a sensing system can support a large number of FBG sensors because of the use of a tunable fiber Fabry-Perot filter located within the ring laser and spatial division multiplexing for expansion of sensor channels. Experimental results show that an excellent optical SNR of approximately 60 dB has been achieved for a 50 km transmission distance with a low Raman pump power of approximately 170 mW at a wavelength of 1455 nm and a low EDFA pump power of approximately 40 mW at a wavelength of 980 nm, which is the highest optical SNR achieved so far for a 50 km long FBG sensor system, to our knowledge.     

Gain clamped L-band EDFA with forward–backward pumping scheme using fiber Bragg grating

The paper proposes a novel two stage L-band erbium doped fiber amplifier with forward–backward pumping scheme for transmission of 32 wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) channels. It is gain clamped with an in-line fiber Bragg grating (FBG) to provide flat gain over 45 nm by restricting and reutilizing amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). We demonstrate that it provides an efficient small signal gain with minimum noise figure of over 20 dB and 5.5 dB, respectively, in the L-band region (1565–1610 nm) by comparing with its forward and backward pumped counterparts with fixed Er³⁺ fiber length of 20 m for −30 dBm/channel input power. We also obtain the gain and noise figure dependence as a function of each of the Er³⁺ fiber lengths, pump power (both 1480 and 980 nm), and temperature. Hence a 10 nm region (1580–1590 nm) has been acknowledged where temperature variations become constricted for 30 °C variations (15–45 °C).     

Gain-clamped dual-stage L-band EDFA by using backward C-band ASE

A dual-stage L-band gain-clamped erbium-doped fiber amplifier (GC-EDFA) by using backward C-band amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is proposed. Compared with other similar GC-EDFAs, the proposed structure has higher and flatter clamped gain in L-band because of its optimal pump power and EDF length. The flatness from 1570 nm to 1600 nm arrives 0.77 dB, the bandwidth of 3 dB is more than 35 nm and the maximal input signal power arrives −15 dBm.     

A dual pumped double-pass L-band EDFA with high gain and low noise

This paper presents an efficient pumping scheme for L-band erbium-doped fiber (EDFA) amplifier to reach high gain and low noise performance in a double-pass configuration. The main L-band amplifier is composed of two sections of EDFs. A 980 nm and a 1480 nm pump lasers are used to pump the first section of EDF bi-directionally. The generated backward C-band amplified spontaneous emission noise from this EDF is used to pump a subsequent un-pumped section of EDF. In the double-pass scheme, a narrow-band fiber Bragg grating at each channel wavelength is used to back-reflect the L-band signal to make it amplified twice by the pair of EDFs. Compared with its conventional counterpart, this new double-pass configuration provides a lower noise figure and a higher gain. The pump conversion efficiency can be improved by more than 50% in a 3-channel demonstration by using the proposed configuration.     

基于双向拉曼放大的布里渊光时域分析系统

报道了一种基于双向拉曼放大的布里渊光时域分析系统(Brillouin optical time domain analyzer,BOTDA).利用双向拉曼抽运对信号光进行拉曼放大以补偿光纤损耗及布里渊抽运波的消耗,从而使光纤后端的测量分辨率得到改善,测量分辨率在整段传感光纤趋于一致,同时避免了调制不稳定性引起的频谱扩展,克服了传统BOTDA存在的信号强度指数下降的弊端,使传感精度得到进一步提高.实验实现了50 km传感距离, 温度分辨率达0.6 ℃,空间分辨率为50 m.实验测量并分析了基于双向拉曼放大的BOTDA信噪比和光功率分布特性. 关键词： 分布式光纤传感 受激拉曼放大 布里渊增益 布里渊光时域分析     

Gain and gain-flatness improved photonic crystal fiber Raman amplifier based on a dual-pass amplification configuration with single pump laser

A gain and gain-flatness improved L-band dual-pass Raman fiber amplifier (RFA) utilizing a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as gain medium is demonstrated. By introducing complementary gain spectra of typical forward and backward pumping single-pass RFA using the same PCF, we finally achieve average net gain level of 22.5 dB with a ±0.8 dB flattening gain in 20-nm bandwidth from 1595 nm to 1615 nm, which is rare in RFAs with only one single pump and no flattening filter. Compared with the single-pass pump configurations, gain level, flatness and bandwidth are greatly improved by using the dual-pass amplification configuration. The limitation of this configuration caused by multi-path interference (MPI) noise and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is also discussed.     

The moment method for fiber Raman amplifier gain ripple minimization

We aim to propose a novel fiber Raman amplifier modeling based on the moment method, which is previously introduced for modeling the inhomogeneous Erbium doped fiber amplifiers and recently employed to analyze the fiber Raman amplifier with continuous pump spectrum. In this model, the number of governing equations is independent of the number of signals and according to the degree of accuracy it is proportional to the number of pumps. This method is employed to analyze the Raman fiber amplifiers with an arbitrary input signal line shape and to minimize the gain ripple of the fiber Raman amplifier with respect to the pump powers and pump frequencies.     

Automatic gain control in Raman amplifier with multi-wavelength pumps

Automatic gain control method in Raman amplifier with multi-wavelength pumping scheme is presented. Monitoring of several channel power and feedback pump control is used in the gain control method. The condition to minimize the gain deviation is investigated by numerical simulation. Two monitoring channels are necessary to confine gain deviation in ±0.2 dB at two pumps C-band Raman amplifier. In the experiment, gain deviation of 1.5 dB is controlled to 0.2 dB at 38/40 channels drop, and fast suppression of transient gain excursion is achieved.     

Simulation analysis of crosstalk among channels with fiber Raman amplifiers at 10 Gb/s

We have investigated the effects of crosstalk in fiber Raman amplifiers (FRAs) by propagating signals through the Raman fiber. We have observed that quality factor reduces for lesser channel spacing. We have able to propagate the signals in two channels with spacing of 20 GHz and quality factor above 25 dB was obtained. The effect of signal input power and injected pump power on crosstalk and signal interference ratio (SIR) has analyzed. It is observed that the signal gain and the injected pump power should be limited to the value well below the threshold of Raman amplification to ensure small crosstalk and high SIR. The effect of Raman fiber length on crosstalk is also studied and it is observed that for high values of Raman fiber length, SIR reduces considerably.     

An effective numerical method for gain profile optimizations of multi pumped fiber Raman amplifiers

In this paper, we have solved propagation equations of multi-pump fiber Raman amplifier using Runge–Kutta (RK 4th order) numerical method and pump power evolutions along with the fiber length. They are used to calculate the net gain and gain ripple by varying the input signals powers for different fiber lengths. The pump powers are optimized by genetic algorithm and resulting net gain and gain ripple are reported graphically as well as in tabular form. The optimum minimum gain ripple is 0.26 dB for 1 mW input signal powers for 50 km fiber length. By increasing the fiber length gain ripple increases to 0.5 dB for 0.1 mW input signal power. In comparison to other methods reported in the literature, our method is simple to implement and efficient for numerical design of Raman amplification in optical communication systems.     

基于双向拉曼放大的相位敏感光时域反射仪

报道了一种基于双向拉曼放大延长相位敏感光时域反射仪分布式光纤传感系统传感距离的方法.利用双向拉曼抽运对信号光进行拉曼放大, 补偿了光纤传输损耗.实验表明, 该方法提高了整个传感光纤上信号光的分布均匀性, 实现了74 km的超长传感距离和20 m的空间分辨率, 同时, 试验了不同信号光入纤功率和抽运功率对基于双向拉曼放大的相位敏感光时域反射仪系统的影响. 关键词： 相位敏感光时域反射仪 分布式光纤传感 拉曼放大     

Analysis of multitone microwave signals on optical fiber system using external laser modulation

In this paper, we Analyze multitone microwave signals on optical fiber with different tone signals and utilizing various possibilities of regeneration and amplification by different means. We compare out the performance analysis of Erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and Semi-conductor Optical Amplifiers (SOA). One tone's frequency varies from 1 to 20 GHz through parametric runs and other has fixed frequency of 5 GHz and third harmonic tones may be monitored.     

基于喇曼/掺铒光纤混合放大的长距离布喇格光栅传感器系统

提出了一种提高长距离光纤布喇格光栅信噪比以进行准分布测量的新方法.本方法基于双向喇曼放大和双掺铒光纤结构,喇曼光纤放大器对布喇格光栅信号进行低噪音的双向放大,置于远处的掺铒光纤利用剩余的泵浦功率产生自发辐射光和放大传感信号,为第二段掺铒光纤之后的远处布喇格光栅传感器提供光以及补偿由于长距离传输造成的光纤损耗.实验显示传感器系统的性能得到显著提高.使用功率为240 mW的单个普通泵浦,分布在50 km光纤上的FBG均可获得15 dB的良好信噪比,比混合放大前提高了10 dB.     

基于光纤环形激光器和光放大的100 km光纤布拉格光栅传感系统

在基于掺铒光纤-拉曼混合放大的可调光纤环形激光器的光纤布拉格光栅(FBG)传感系统结构基础上,提出了延长传感距离的新方法。该方法以环形掺铒光纤激光器作为光源,采用双波长拉曼放大的方法对信号进行低噪声的双向放大,系统中间的两段掺铒光纤再利用剩余的抽运功率产生自发辐射光和放大传感信号,使得整个系统能够在超长的传感距离上获得很高的信噪比。实验表明使用一只40 mW的掺铒光纤放大(EDFA)抽运源、一只170 mW的拉曼抽运源和一只2 W的拉曼抽运源,可以使整个系统的传感距离达到100km,并且传感系统的光纤布拉格光栅反射信号均能获得超过57 dB的优良信噪比,从而实现在超长距离上的光纤布拉格光栅传感。