Gain enhancement of L-band EDFA by using residual pump power in a three-stage configuration

This paper presents an idea of using residual pump power for implementation of low-noise and high-gain L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). A single pump laser is employed to pump the first-stage EDFA, which serves as a low-noise preamplifier, in the proposed three-stage EDFA system. The residual pump power unabsorbed by the preamplifier is directed to pump the subsequent EDF. Experimental results show that gain enhancement of up to 8 dB with respect to conventional EDFAs can be achieved by using the proposed low-noise EDFA.     

High gain L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier with two-stage double-pass configuration

An experiment on gain enhancement in the long wavelength band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (L-band EDFA) is demonstrated using dual forward pumping scheme in double-pass system. Compared to a single-stage single-pass scheme, the small signal gain for 1580 nm signal can be improved by 13.5 dB. However, a noise figure penalty of 2.9 dB was obtained due to the backward C-band ASE from second stage and the already amplified signal from the first pass that extracting energy from the forward C-band ASE. The maximum gain improvement of 13.7 dB was obtained at a signal wavelength of 1588 nm while signal and total pump powers were fixed at -30 dBm and 92 mW, respectively.     

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.     

The L-band EDFA of high clamped gain and low noise figure implemented using fiber Bragg grating and double-pass method

The L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) of low noise figure and high clamped-gain using gain-clamped and double-pass configuration is presented in this paper. A total of five different configurations of EDFAs by reflection scheme with single forward pumping schemes are examined and compared here. Among these configurations, we first find the configuration of 1480-nm pumped L-band EDFA with optimum gain and noise figure value. To further minimize the gain variation, a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with 1615-nm center wavelength and 1-nm bandwidth is determined and added in double-pass L-band EDFA. The gain variation and maximum noise figure of EDFA while channel dropping is investigated. As the number of channel dropping from 32 to 4, the L-band type-A EDFA keep the variation of gain within 2.9 dB and the maximum noise figure below 5 dB with each channel’s input power of −23 dBm.     

Amplification enhancement of L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifiers by reflection scheme

A reflection L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA), which can effectively suppress and completely exploit the backward C-band amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) with a feedback reflection loop, is presented in this paper. The mechanism of the backward ASE secondary pumping effect is experimentally investigated in detail. Our experimental results have shown that, for a given input pump power, compared to the end-pumped EDFA, the gain and output power of the reflection EDFA can be improved considerably without paying much noise penalty. When the EDFA operates with flattened gain spectra, the gain is improved by about 7 dB with an extra noise penalty of about 1.2 dB, where the saturation output power is increased by 2.5–3.2 dB and which may also be made independent of the input signal power.     

Gain-clamping in two-stage L-band EDFA using an unwanted backward ase from second stage

A gain clamping technique for the long wavelength band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (L-band EDFA) is presented. It uses two circulators and a broad band fiber Bragg grating to route wasted backward C-band ASE from the second stage and launch it back into the input end of the first stage of a two-stage amplifier. The two-stage L-band EDFA has shown a small signal gain improvement of 5.7 dB compared to a single-stage amplifier with a slight noise figure degradation. By utilizing the wasted backward ASE, a L-band gain-clamped EDFA with high gain can be realized. Compared to the unclamped case, this gain-clamping technique is effective in reducing the total gain variation as small as 0.3 dB.     

Characteristic comparison of single-pumped L-band erbium-doped fiber amplified spontaneous emission sources

We experimentally investigate the single-pumped L-band (1570–1610 nm) erbium-doped fiber amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source in four configurations with single-pass forward, single-pass backward, double-pass forward (DPF), and double-pass backward structures. The characteristics are examined and compared in terms of the output power, mean wavelength, spectral linewidth, and pumping conversion efficiency. Among them, only DPF configuration is satisfied, and other configurations are intrinsically hard to be an L-band ASE source for applications. Such results are significantly different as compared with their corresponding C-band counterparts.     

Simulation analysis of one-stage C+L-band erbium-doped fiber ASE source with double-pass bi-directional pumping configuration

A new technique to generate a C+L-band flat amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source in one-stage erbium-doped fiber (EDF) using bi-directional pumping configuration is analyzed. The simulation results show that the key point of obtaining flat C+L-band ASE spectrum in one-stage EDF is using a laser diode operated at 980 nm as backward pump source. ASE source with nearly 80-nm bandwidth can be obtained by means of selecting suitable fiber length and properly adjusting the ratio of forward to backward pump power.     

低噪声、高增益的L -band EDFA的实验研究

针对传统的L-band EDFA的工作效率低,提出了一种基于单根光纤光栅、泵浦分配、两段级联的EDFA的新结构,其中的光纤光栅用来反射无用的后向C-band ASE.系统地研究了泵浦比例和光纤光栅波长对增益噪声指数的影响关系.最后经实验验证,得到了低噪声、高增益的L-band的EDFA.其在输入信号光（1570 nm）功率为-30 dBm及泵浦功率为70 mW时,增益为22.26 dB,增益噪声指数为4.96 dB.     

Gain-clamping techniques in two-stage double-pass L-band EDFA

Two designs of long-wavelength band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (L-band EDFA) for gain clamping in double-pass systems are demonstrated and compared. The first design is based on ring laser technique where a backward amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from the second stage is routed into the feedback loop to create an oscillating laser for gain clamping. The gain is clamped at 18.6 d B from -40 to -80 dBm with a gain variation of less than ±0.1 dB and a noise figure of less than 6 dB. Another scheme is based on partial reflection of ASE into the EDFA, which is demonstrated using a narrowband fiber Bragg grating. This scheme achieves a good gain clamping characteristic up to -12 dBm of input signal power with a gain variation of less than ±0.3 dB from a clamped gain of 22 dB. The noise figure of a 1580 nm signal is maintained below 5 dB in this amplifier since this scheme is not based on lasing mechanism. The latter scheme is also expected to be free from the relaxation oscillation problem.     

High gain double-pass L-band EDFA with dispersion compensation as feedback loop

We demonstrate an efficient double-pass L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) incorporating chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG). The amplifier structure exploits the characteristics of CFBG to reflect the amplified signal back into the gain medium, filter out the recycled forward amplified spontaneous emission and block the residual 1480 nm pump power. The amplifier configuration has high gain and low noise figures as compared to double-pass EDFA using broadband mirror. The demonstrated amplifier has gain of more than 48 dB and low noise figure of less than 4 dB at low input signal power of −40 dBm.     

An experimental investigation of the gain spectrum of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers under various system configurations

The paper presents an experimental investigation of the gain spectrum of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) considering different system configurations, which include single-pass, double-pass, and double-pass with tunable band-pass filter (TBF). The role of TBF is to suppress the undesired amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). Both co- and counter-pumping schemes are considered with a 1480 nm laser diode as the pump and a suitable tunable laser source as the signal source. The results indicate that the signal achieves an average of 14 dB higher gain in the case of double-pass amplification with the implementation of a TBF. However, the pumping scheme hardly becomes of much importance in influencing the gain characteristics.     

L波段掺铒光纤放大器的自发辐射谱与增益的研究

利用Giles模型对L波段掺铒光纤放大器小信号增益特性进行了数值模拟,模拟结果表明最佳铒纤长度并不是一定值,它随输入信号波长的不同而改变,较短的波长对应较短的光纤长度;在数值模拟、分析的基础上,分别采用7m和9m的L波段铒光纤构成长波段掺铒光纤放大器,通过实验测量,分析比较了它们的自发辐射谱以及增益和噪声指数,得到了光纤长度对L波段增益谱、噪声指数和自发辐射谱的影响规律;最后,辅以C波段掺铒光纤放大器加以分析,指出了适合于放大L波段信号的最佳自发辐射谱型。     

L波段高掺铒光纤超荧光光源

采用半导体激光二极管泵浦12cm长高掺铒光纤,在双程前向装置中,获得了10.8mW最大超荧光输出功率,斜率效率10.6%,在1553.1~1588.6nm接近36nm的范围内,功率抖动小于0.2dBm。作为比较,在相同实验条件下泵浦10cm长的高掺铒光纤,结果显示输出光谱带宽明显下降,C波段的放大自发辐射远大于L波段的,由此也证明了L波段的放大自发辐射是由C波段的放大自发辐射泵浦产生的。     

小信号脉冲抽运时掺铒光纤自发辐射的研究

自发辐射(ASE)是掺铒光纤放大器(EDFA)的重要噪声源,对于由EDFA构成的光纤激光器有重要影响。理论与实践证明,它与抽运方式紧密相关,所以研究脉冲抽运时掺铒光纤(EDF)的自发辐射有重要的学术价值。同时,脉冲抽运对于EDFA锁模激光器的研究也有一定意义。从理论和实验两方面研究了小信号脉冲抽运时,抽运脉冲宽度和幅度对于EDF的自发辐射特性的影响,得到了小信号抽运时输出ASE噪声平均值的近似解析解。研究发现,小信号脉冲抽运时输出信号的幅度与抽运脉冲的宽度成正比。这个新现象可用于脉冲宽度的全光检测。     

基于长周期光纤光栅滤波器的掺铒光纤放大器理论和实验研究

从理论和实验上研究了带有高频二氧化碳激光写入的低成本长周期光纤光栅（LPFG）掺铒光纤放大器（EDFA）.结果表明,单波长和多波长EDFA的性能都可以通过在掺铒光纤（EDF）中插入长周期光纤光栅用作自发辐射噪声（ASE）滤波器或增益平坦器来提高性能.优化设计了带LPFG噪声滤波器的线放EDFA,与没有LPFG噪声滤波器相比,线放的噪声和小信号增益分别被减小和提高了约0.5 dB和7 dB。通过在多波长EDFA的EDF中插入一个LPFG增益平坦滤波器的方法,获得了1.5 dB的增益平坦度,与没有LPFG平坦器相比,EDFA的噪声被减小了0.1 dB,增益被提高了1 dB.     

Low noise gain-clamped L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier by utilizing fiber Bragg grating

A novel gain-clamped long wavelength band (L-band) erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is proposedand experimented by using a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) at the input end of the amplifier. This designprovides a good gain clamping and decreases noise effectively. It uses two sections of erbium-doped fiber(EDF) pumped by a 1480-nm laser diode (LD) for higher efficiency and lower noise figure (NF). The gainis clamped at 23 dB with a variation of 0.5 dB from input signal power of -30 to -8 dBm for 1589 nm andNF below 5 dB is obtained. At the longer wavelength in L-band higher gain is also obtained and the gainis clamped at 16 dB for 1614 nm effectively. Because the FBG injects a portion of backward amplifiedspontaneous emission (ASE) back into the system, the gain enhances 5 dB with inputting small signal.     

一种高效率的L波段掺铒光纤ASE宽带光源

利用双程双向泵浦单级掺铒光纤的结构实现高效率的L波段掺铒光纤放大自发辐射输出,同时选择1480nm半导体激光器作为泵浦源,高掺杂铒光纤为增益介质,通过优化铒光纤长度,获得了在1566-1604 nm（38 nm）,自发辐射谱功率高于－16 dBm,总输出功率13.7 dBm的L波段掺铒光纤放大自发辐射光源.该光源结构相比于双程前向泵浦结构的L波段掺铒光纤放大自发辐射光源,其泵浦效率从11.8%提高到23.4%.     

双向掺铒光纤放大器的特性分析

讨论了双向掺铒光纤放大器的结构方案,利用考虑放大的自发辐和北员耗影响的双向掺铒光纤放大器稳态放大速率方程模型分析的增益与掺铒光纤长度、输入信号光功率、帛运光功率及抽运方式等参数之间的关系,研究了单向和双向等功率抽运下正反向噪声系数随正反向信号光输入功率的变化行为。     

Wavelength tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser operating in L-band

We describe a novel erbium-doped fiber ring laser utilizing the backward amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) power as a secondary pump source so that it can operate in L-band stably. The output wavelength can be tuned in a wide range of 45 nm, from 1560 to 1605 nm. We also compared this scheme with the condition of not using the ASE as secondary pump source, and found this scheme could improve the performance of the laser when using the same components.