Efficient erbium-doped fiber amplifiers incorporating an optical isolator

A composite-EDFA configuration which incorporates an optical isolator has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. The isolator prevents the build-up of the backward-ASE and results in an amplifier with high gain and near-quantum-limited noise figure (NF). The optimum position of the isolator has been calculated as a function of the pump power so that minimum NF and maximum gain are achieved simultaneously. It is shown that under practical pump powers, the optimized composite EDFA exhibits a gain improvement of about 5 dB and a NF reduction in excess of 1.5 dB when compared with an optimized conventional EDFA. It is also shown that with further optimization the composite EDFA can be employed in a practical fiber link as a pre-amplifier without the use of an input isolator. Finally, a high-gain composite EDFA has been experimentally demonstrated which exhibits a gain of 51 dB (54 dB) and NF of 3.1 dB for only 435 mW (93 mW) of pump power