Multicore Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers for Space Division Multiplexing Systems

Author

Abedin, Kazi S. ; Fini, John M. ; Thierry, Taunay F. ; Supradeepa, V.R. ; Zhu Benyuan ; Yan, M.F. ; Bansal, Lalit ; Monberg, E.M. ; DiGiovanni, D.J.

Author_Institution

OFS Labs., Somerset, NJ, USA

Volume

32

Issue

16

fYear

2014

fDate

Aug.15, 2014

Firstpage

2800

Lastpage

2808

Abstract

We report on the recent development of multicore fiber amplifiers suitable for amplifying space division multiplexed signals. We designed and constructed 7-core amplifiers, where the cores could be pumped individually or simultaneously through the cladding and studied the amplification and noise properties of these amplifiers. In the core-pumped amplifier, the net average gain was 25 dB, and noise figure was less than 4 dB. Using side-coupled cladding pumping, gain over 25 dB was obtained in each of the cores over a 40-nm bandwidth covering the C-band. We present results of numerical simulation that shows ways of further improvement of amplifier performance, including gain, noise figure, and power conversion efficiency (PCE) through optimization of fiber design.

Keywords

erbium; optical fibre amplifiers; optical fibre cladding; optical noise; optical pumping; optimisation; space division multiplexing; 7-core amplifier; C-band; PCE; amplifier performance improvement; core-pumped amplifier; fiber design optimization; gain 25 dB; multicore erbium doped fiber amplifier; noise figure; numerical simulation; power conversion efficiency; side-coupled cladding pumping; space division multiplexing system; Gain; Multicore processing; Noise measurement; Optical fiber amplifiers; Optical fiber couplers; Optical fiber devices; Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers; optical fiber; space division multiplexing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2014.2317807

Filename

6799254