Study on bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber for optical amplification

• Main Authors: Tamchek, Nizam, Harun, Sulaiman Wadi, Chong, Wu Yi, Ahmad, Harith
• Format: Article
• Published: National Institute of Optoelectronics 2009
• Subjects: QC Physics; TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/19750/; https://oam-rc.inoe.ro/index.php?option=magazine&op=view&idu=623&catid=34

Bismuth-based EDF (Bi-EDF) is comprehensively studied as an alternative medium for optical amplification. The bismuth glass host provides the opportunity to be doped heavily with erbium ions to allow a compact high-power system design. The proposed methods have resulted in an increase of useable gain bandwidth and output power with minimal noise figure. The gain spectrum of the Bi-EDF amplifier has a measured amplification bandwidth of 80 nm with a quantum conversion efficiency of 20% obtained using 1480 nm pumping. This glass host will find more ample applications in the expansion of Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) accommodating more channels in support of ever-increasing data traffic.