Hybrid fiber amplifiers consisting of cascaded TDFA and EDFA for WDM signals

The detailed gain characteristics of hybrid fiber amplifiers that consist of cascaded thulium-doped fiber amplifiers (TDFAs) and erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are reported. The experimental results showed that the hybrid amplifiers have gains of over 20 dB with the bandwidth of more than 80 nm in the wavelength range between 1460 and 1560 nm. The low noise figure (NF) below 7 dB was obtained in 1460-1540 nm when placing a TDFA in the first stage followed by an EDFA and in 1480-1560 nm when placing amplifiers in a reversed order. The gain of TDFA and EDFA was optimized for minimizing the gain variation ratio (GVR=(maximumgain-minimumgain)/minimumgain: in the unit of decibels) of the hybrid amplifiers, and it could be minimized to less than 0.4 for the amplifiers that have gain in the wavelength region from 1460 to 1537 nm. The gain-equalization technique was applied, and the hybrid amplifier that had an average gain of 20 dB, a gain excursion of less than 2 dB, an output power of 14.5 dBm, and an NF of less than 7 dB in the 77-nm gain band was achieved.