Splice effects of Er-doped fiber in Er-doped fiber amplifiers

We report the splice effects in Er-doped fibers (EDF) with a 40 m length for the gain and noise figure (NF) characteristics of an EDFA. The used EDFA consisted of a forward pumping at 1480 nm, and a signal center wavelength of 1557.3 nm. In our experiment, the maximum gain is about 26 dB. The gain and NF characteristics of the EDFA using the EDF with one or two splicing points are compared with ones of the EDFA with no splicing point in the EDF. According to some experiments so far, 1.3~4.2 dB NF deteriorations were observed in the EDFA using an the EDF with one or two splicing points. While the gain characteristics showed some gain deterioration in the EDFA using an EDF with a splicing point. The gain deterioration was less than the NF deterioration. We surmise that the splice loss causes the gain deterioration and the NF deterioration. The NF deterioration change was observed by changing the splicing point location in the EDF