Hybrid three-stage C- plus L-band optical fiber amplifier in cascade configuration

Abstract

A hybrid C- plus L-band fiber amplifier module with three amplifier stages, which provides an operation range of 1540 to 1600 nm, is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The proposed amplifier consists of two erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFAs) and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) in cascade. Compared with a traditional L-band EDFA having longer EDF length, this amplifier can reduce the total EDF length to 44 m. As a result, 41.5 dB gain and a 3.7-dB noise figure are achieved at 1562 nm over the bandwidth of 1540 to 1600 nm, while the input signal power is -30 dBm. In addition, the behavior and performance of the proposed gain-clamping amplifier module over the C-plus L-band is investigated experimentally under different operation conditions. (c) 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.