Hybrid Er-doped fibre amplifiers at 980-1480 nm for long distance optical communications

The design and performance evaluation of two hybrid erbium doped fibre amplifiers (HEDFAs), pumped simultaneously by 980 and 1480 nm diode pump lasers, are reported. Among other features, these HEDFAs exhibit a flat gain spectrum (+17 dBm output saturated power) with a 1 dB bandwidth in excess of 35 nm which make them attractive as power boosters. Subsequently, the authors demonstrate the use of one of these HEDFA structures as an efficient power (post) amplifier module in a 300 km point to point transmission system experiment at 622 Mbit/s, with a -43 dBm receiver sensitivity at a bit error rate of 10^-13.