Theory, simulation, and measurements of spectral hole burning in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers

This study presents a modified approach to measure and quantify spectral hole burning (SHB). The approach does not depend on the individual spectral shapes of the ions for the gain shape prediction, but rather on some statistically averaged functions that can be experimentally measured. In addition, this approach is easier to implement without the loss of accuracy. Based on this approach, an experiment is designed and conducted to demonstrate whether the thermal equalization and the excitation transfer are related to the SHB phenomenon in EDF.