A 23-dB bismuth-doped optical fiber amplifier for a 1700-nm band

• Published in: Scientific reports 2016-06, Vol.6 (1), p.28939-28939, Article 28939
• Main Authors: Firstov, Sergei V., Alyshev, Sergey V., Riumkin, Konstantin E., Khopin, Vladimir F., Guryanov, Alexey N., Melkumov, Mikhail A., Dianov, Evgeny M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/624/1020/1086; 639/624/1020/1094; Bismuth; Efficiency; Erbium; Humanities and Social Sciences; Lasers; multidisciplinary; Science
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep28939

It is now almost twenty-five years since the first Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) was demonstrated. Currently, the EDFA is one of the most important elements widely used in different kinds of fiber-optic communication systems. However, driven by a constantly increasing demand, the network traffic, growing exponentially over decades, will lead to the overload of these systems (“capacity crunch”) because the operation of the EDFA is limited to a spectral region of 1530–1610 nm. It will require a search for new technologies and, in this respect, the development of optical amplifiers for new spectral regions can be a promising approach. Most of fiber-optic amplifiers are created using rare-earth-doped materials. As a result, wide bands in shorter (1150–1530 nm) and longer wavelength (1600–1750 nm) regions with respect to the gain band of Er-doped fibers are still uncovered. Here we report on the development of a novel fiber amplifier operating in a spectral region of 1640–1770 nm pumped by commercially available laser diodes at 1550 nm. This amplifier was realized using bismuth-doped high-germania silicate fibers fabricated by MCVD technique.