Bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber as a gain medium for L-band amplification and Brillouin fiber laser

Abstract

Bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) is demonstrated as an alternative medium for optical amplification and nonlinear applications. The bismuth glass host provides the opportunity to be doped heavily with erbium ions to allow a compact optical amplifier design. The bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber amplifier (Bi-EDFA) is demonstrated to operate at wavelength region from 1570 to 1620 nm using only a 215 cm long of gain medium. The maximum gain of 15.8 dB is obtained at signal wavelength of 1610 nm with the corresponding noise figure of about 6.3 dB. A multi-wavelength laser comb is also demonstrated using a stimulated Brillouin scattering in the 215 cm long Bi-EDF assisted by the 1480 nm pumping. The laser generates more than 40 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.08 at 1612.5 nm region using 152 mW of 1480 nm pump power.