High-gain erbium-doped fiber amplifier incorporating a double-pass amplification technique as a preamplifier

We present a high-gain erbium-doped fiber amplifier to be utilized as a preamplifier. A double-pass amplification technique is used in the first-stage amplifier together with a tunable bandpass filter. The secondstage amplifier is a counter-pumped configuration and another tunable bandpass filter is utilized to filter out amplified spontaneous emission from the first-stage amplifier. This design is able to produce a high gain of 55.6 dB and a noise figure of 6.02 dB at 1530 nm with a signal power of ?45 dBm. The receiver sensitivity measurement shows that the proposed amplifier improves the minimum detectable power from ?33.7 to ?40.8 dBm for a bit-error rate of 10^?11 at 155 Mbps.

     

Low noise double pass L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier

A new double pass long wavelength band erbium-doped fiber amplifier with enhanced noise figure characteristics is demonstrated. The noise figure is improved by about 2.6 dB with the incorporation of broadband conventional-band fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in between the two segments of erbium-doped fiber. By incorporating both the pre-amplifier and the FBG, the noise figure is further improved, which varies from 4.0 to 5.0 dB in the flat gain region from 1570 to 1600 nm. The gain varies from 32.0 to 33.4 dB within this region. The new amplifier with high gain and low noise figure can be useful as an inline amplifier in a wavelength division multiplexing transmission system.     

Performance of optical amplifier employing silica host magnesium-aluminum-germanium co-doped erbium-doped fiber

Two silica host magnesium(Mg)-aluminum(Al)-germanium(Ge) co-doped erbium-doped fibers (EDFs)have been fabricated, which have different Mg concentrations. The concentration of all the compositions in the preform is measured through electronics probe micro analysis (EPMA). The maximum Mg concentrations of fibers A and B are 3.98 and 1.28 mol%, respectively. The performance characteristics including absorption spectrum and gain are measured and analyzed. The absorption coefficients of fibers A and B are 13.3 and 14.3 dB/m respectively at wavelength of 1532 nm. The max gains of these two erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are 30.1 and 35.9 dB with input signal power of -30 dBm and pump power of 100 mW at 980 nm. Fiber B with maximum Mg concentration 1.28 mol% has better performance than fiber A. Fiber B has high absorption coefficient and high gain characteristics. The optimum fiber B length of C-band EDFA is 7 m and that of L-Band EDFA is about 30 m, which is much shorter than standard commercial EDFAs. The result of experiments showed that a few Mg added to silica host EDF can increase the concentration of erbium ions, which will shorten the EDF length much, but not degrade the performance characteristics.     

Performance of optical amplifier employing silica host magnesium-aluminum-germanium co-doped erbium-doped fiber

Two silica host magnesium(Mg)-aluminum(Al)-germanium(Ge) co-doped erbium-doped fibers (EDFs) have been fabricated, which have different Mg concentrations. The concentration of all the compositions in the preform is measured through electronics probe micro analysis (EPMA). The maximum Mg concentrations of fibers A and B are 3.98 and 1.28 mol%, respectively. The performance characteristics including absorption spectrum and gain are measured and analyzed. The absorption coefficients of fibers A and B are 13.3 and 14.3 dB/m respectively at wavelength of 1532 nm. The max gains of these two erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are 30.1 and 35.9 dB with input signal power of -30 dBm and pump power of 100 mW at 980 nm. Fiber B with maximum Mg concentration 1.28 mol% has better performance than fiber A. Fiber B has high absorption coefficient and high gain characteristics. The optimum fiber B length of C-band EDFA is 7 m and that of L-Band EDFA is about 30 m, which is much shorter than standard commercial EDFAs.     

High-gain Tm-doped fluoride fiber amplifier

A diode-pumped Tm-doped fiber-optic amplifier that has a small-signal gain of >30 dB at 1870 nm is reported. Output pulses of up to 3-W peak power at a 1-60-kHz repetition rate can be generated by amplification of 20-40-ns laser diode pulses of up to 2-mW launched peak power. The output signal quality, i.e., the ratio of the output pulse energy and the total amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) output energy between two pulses, depends on the relative propagation direction of pump and signal and can be dramatically increased by choice of the correct propagation scheme. In the optimum pump geometry the pulse energy can be raised to as much as 20 times the ASE energy. This is the first report to the author's knowledge of fiber-optic amplification of short diode laser pulses near 1.9 microm with high repetition rates in Tm-doped fibers.     

Bidirectional-pumped L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier with pump distribution technique

A dual-stage erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) having a flat gain wavelength response throughout L-band transmission window is presented. By applying pump power distribution technique, the pump power is distributed to two different stages with different length of EDF depending on the coupling ratio. By controlling these two parameters, gain of 19.1 dB with small gain variation of less than 0.5 dB and a noise figure of less than 10.5 dB are achieved in this architecture using bidirectional pumping. However, when another 3 dB power coupler is added to split the pump power equally at the second stage in bidirectional, a better noise figure of less than 7.5 dB was obtained. Comparison with a conventional single-stage optical amplifier was made in order to validate the performances of this dual-stage EDFA.     

Novel split-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier

In this paper we design a 120 nm bandwidth erbium-doped fiber amplifier using a seed light injection method for the first time. It is shown that when the wavelength of the seed light varies from 1520 to 1570 nm, the gain at 1610 nm reaches maximum near 1553 nm and increases as the seed light power. Based on the method, a novel split-band EDFA configuration is designed. The split-band architecture employs a 1550/1610 nm waveband multiplexer/demultiplexer and two independent sub-bands which pass in parallel through separate branches of the optical amplifier. The signals at independent sub-bands are combined and flattened before output, resulting in a broadband gain-flattened optical amplifier with 120 nm bandwidth.     

A twin-core erbium-doped fiber amplifier

We propose a twin-core erbium-doped optical fiber amplifier. It has the advantage over the conventional single core erbium-doped fiber amplifier in that it has a flat gain characteristic over a wide bandwidth, i.e. within 30 nm. By adjusting the pump power launched into one of the cores, the gain characteristic can be tuned.     

A global design of an erbium-doped fiber and an erbium-doped fiber amplifier

A global design of an erbium-doped fiber and an open-loop erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) in a steady-state operation is discussed by applying genetic algorithms. Taking a signal gain and a bandwidth as objective functions, 7 parameters of the EDFA (erbium concentration, core radius, erbium-doped radius, refractive index difference, fiber length, pumping wavelength and signal power) are optimized by solving optical propagation equations, assuming a homogenous two-level active medium and a single-mode propagation. There is evidence to show that the 1480 nm pump utilized in usual EDFAs is not an optimal choice, which should be chosen around 1460 nm. The optimal core radius ranges 0.465–0.548 μm on pumping power 50–200 mW. Under different design objects and with different pumping powers, however, there are different optimal Er-doped concentrations, reflective index differences and fiber lengths. As a single fiber EDFA, 35 dB signal gain or 35 nm bandwidth is obtained with the 7 optimal parameters, 100 mW pumping power and 0.001 mW input signal power.     

Multiwavelength fiber laser using S-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier and semiconductor optical amplifier

A multiwavelength fiber ring laser that is based on an S-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is developed. An optical switch is used to switch the multiwavelength fiber laser between S-band and L-band. This fiber laser can stably lase seven wavelengths in the S-band or 28 wavelengths in the L-band. Additionally, the lasing wavelengths with a signal-to-noise ratio of over 33 dB and a wavelength spacing of 100 GHz are demonstrated experimentally. The average powers of the lasing wavelength in the S-band and the L-band are −7.53 and −12.15 dBm, respectively.     

Variable gain-flattened L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier

This is a study on the design of variable gain-flattened erbium-doped fiber amplifier operating in L-band transmission window. Four amplifiers divided into five stages became the basis of the design with distributed pumping configuration. A dispersion compensating module was incorporated into the architecture as a way to combat dispersion. The amplifier was able to generate variable gain from 15 up to 30 dB under different input signal powers with a maximum output power of 23 dBm. Excellent gain flatness averaging around 0.8 dB was accomplished while four-wave mixing effect was significantly reduced.     

The erbium-doped fiber amplifier: Technology and applications

The basics of active fiber technology and their application to optical amplifiers and lasers are reviewed, with particular reference to the activities of the Italian groups involved in this research. The main uses of optical amplifiers in telecommunications and the perspective of ultrafast soliton fiber lasers are presented and discussed.     

色散缓变掺铒光纤放大器的调制不稳定性

由于掺铒光纤放大器(EDFA)存在增益,相比于传输光纤它有较小的调制不稳定性阈值,使其很容易受到调制不稳定性的影响.本文将用微扰法分析基本的非线性薛定谔方程,研究色散缓变掺铒光纤放大器的调制不稳定性,分析其调制不稳定性积分增益谱与输入信号功率、放大器增益、放大器的长度、光纤纵向色散变化参量的关系.结果显示增大光纤纵向色散变化参量值是减小调制不稳定性对放大器影响的有效途径.通过分析调制不稳定增益产生长度,表明合理的选择放大器的长度可以消除调制不稳定性增益的产生.     

Twin-core erbium-doped fiber amplifier with channel equalization

A twin-core erbium-doped fiber amplifier has been studied. We establish the theoretical model, propose the coupled-propagation equations, and then numerically simulate the characteristics of the amplifier. It is found that twin-core erbium-doped fiber amplifier can provide different gains for signals with different input powers and self-heal the extra channel loss between amplifying stages, thus equalizes the output signal level. The twin-core erbium-doped fiber amplifier is very suitable for the future wavelength-division-multiplexed and optical frequency-division-multiplexed fiber networks.     

Polarization-maintaining amplifier employing double-clad bow-tie fiber

We report a polarization-maintaining double-clad Yb-doped fiber amplifier employing bow-tie fiber. Borosilicate stress elements were incorporated into the inner cladding of the fiber, yielding a beat length of 5.1 mm at 633 nm. When the fiber was pumped at 975 nm and seeded with linearly polarized light, the polarization extinction ratio was >15 dB , independent of pump power, and the output power was as high as 3.5 W.     

A gain-clamped S-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier using fiber Bragg grating

We propose and investigate experimentally a gain-clamped S-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier module, employing a fiber Bragg grating to serve as a reflected element to lase a saturated tone injected into the module, by forward optical feedback method. In addition, different injected powers of the saturated tone are used to realize the performances of gain and noise figure for the proposed amplifier over the effectively wavelength range of 1478-1520 nm.     

S-band depressed-cladding erbium-doped fiber amplifier with double-pass configuration

A new S-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier module with a double-pass configuration based on two circulators has been designed and constructed. The bending losses of a depressed-cladding doped fiber have been exploited to suppress the amplified spontaneous emission in the C band. The experimental characterization of the double-pass amplifier has shown that significant advantages can be obtained with respect to the single-pass configuration.     

Highly efficient short length Bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber amplifier

An efficient 21 cm Bismuth-based erbium doped fiber amplifier (Bi-EDFA) operating in both C- and L-band wavelength regions is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed Bi-EDFA uses the gain medium with an erbium ion concentration of 6300 ppm in conjunction with a double-pass configuration. Compared to conventional silica-based erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (Si-EDFAs) with the same amount of Erbium ions, the Bi-EDFA provides a higher attainable gain as well as a greater amplification bandwidth ranging from 1525 to 1620 nm. The proposed Bi-EDFA achieved a flat-gain of around 23 dB with gain variation of ±3.5 dB within the wavelength region from 1530 to 1565 nm at the maximum pump power of 150 mW. The corresponding noise figures are obtained at an average of 6 dB.     

Doping radius effects on an erbium-doped fiber amplifier

In an erbium-doped fiber amplifier(EDFA), erbium ions act as a three-level system. Therefore, much higher pump energy is required to achieve the population inversion in an erbium-doped fiber(EDF). This higher pump energy requirement complicates the efficient design of an EDFA. However, efficient use of the pump power can improve the EDFA performance. The improved performance of an EDFA can be obtained by reducing the doping radius of the EDF. A smaller doping radius increases pump–dopant interactions and subsequently increases the pump–photon conversion efficiency. Decreasing the doping radius allows a larger proportion of dopant ions,which are concentrated near the core, to interact with the highest pump intensity. However, decreasing the doping radius beyond a certain limit will bring the dopant ions much closer and introduce detrimental ion–ion interaction effects. In this Letter, we show that an optimal doping radius in an EDF can provide the best gain performance. Moreover, we have simulated the well-known numerical aperture effects on EDFA gain performance to support our claim.     

铋基掺铒光纤放大器宽带放大特性的理论研究

研制了铋酸盐基质掺铒玻璃43Bi2O3-30B2O3-27SiO2,测试分析了玻璃中Er3+离子的光谱性质。结合获得的Er3+离子光谱参数,建立了一个以该铋基掺铒玻璃作为放大器增益介质时Er3+离子跃迁的三能级理论模型,研究了铋基掺铒玻璃光纤放大器(Bi-EDFA)的信号放大特性。研究显示,单波长输入情形下,Bi-EDFA具有大于40dB的信号增益和75nm的3dB波长带宽。同时,相比于硅基掺铒光纤放大器(Si-EDFA),Bi-EDFA具有优异的多波长信号宽带放大和低噪声特性,低噪声系数(~5.5dB)可维持至1610nm波长之外。结果表明,铋基掺铒玻璃光纤放大器是一种单位长度增益极高和宽带放大能力的小型化掺铒光纤放大器,适合于WDM系统的集成化需求。