Active measuring method for investigating the irradiation effect on the gain characteristics of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier in inter-satellite optical communication

An active measuring method is proposed for the first time to study the irradiation effect on the gain characteristics of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) for inter-satellite optical communication, which is feasible from the engineering viewpoint. The measuring method based on the irradiation model can predict the irradiation effect on the gain characteristics just by measuring the variation of the EDFA signal output power at one irradiation dose rate in the irradiation experiment. Therefore, one can avoid removing the erbium-doped fiber (EDF) from the EDFA, which is needed in the previously tested passive measuring method. These experimental measurements meet completely the requirements of the technical specifications for inter-satellite optical communication. Finally, an irradiation experiment has also been carried out to evaluate the new method by a simple test procedure.