domingo, 27 de junio de 2010

Erbium-doped fibre amplifiers

The erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) is the most deployed fibre amplifier as its amplification window coincides with the third transmission window of silica-based optical fibre.
Two bands have developed in the third transmission window – the Conventional, or C-band, from approximately 1525 nm – 1565 nm, and the Long, or L-band, from approximately 1570 nm to 1610 nm. Both of these bands can be amplified by EDFAs, but it is normal to use two different amplifiers, each optimized for one of the bands.
The principal difference between C- and L-band amplifiers is that a longer length of doped fibre is used in L-band amplifiers. The longer length of fibre allows a lower inversion level to be used, thereby giving at longer wavelengths (due to the band-structure of Erbium in silica) while still providing a useful amount of gain.
EDFAs have two commonly-used pumping bands – 980 nm and 1480 nm. The 980 nm band has a higher absorption cross-section and is generally used where low-noise performance is required. The absorption band is relatively narrow and so wavelength stabilised laser sources are typically needed. The 1480 nm band has a lower, but broader, absorption cross-section and is generally used for higher power amplifiers. A combination of 980 nm and 1480 nm pumping is generally utilised in amplifiers.
The optical fiber amplifier was invented by H. J. Shaw and Michel Digonnet at Stanford University, California, in the early 1980s. The EDFA was first demonstrated several years later [1] by a group including David N. Payne, R. Mears, and L. Reekie, from the University of Southampton and a group from AT&T Bell Laboratories, E. Desurvire, P. Becker, and J. Simpson.[2]
[edit] Doped fibre amplifiers for other wavelength rangesThulium doped fibre amplifiers have been used in the S-band (1450–1490 nm) and Praseodymium doped amplifiers in the 1300 nm region. However, those regions have not seen any significant commercial use so far and so those amplifiers have not been the subject of as much development as the EDFA. However, Ytterbium doped fiber lasers and amplifiers, operating near 1 micrometre wavelength, have many applications in industrial processing of materials, as these devices can be made with extremely high output power (tens of kilowatts).

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