Design of L + U‐band Erbium‐doped fiber amplifier based on a single S‐band forward pump source

Abstract

SummaryThe multi‐band transmission (MBT) technique is one of the most cutting‐edge approaches to increase the capacity of fiber‐optic transmission systems and meeting the growing bandwidth demand. MBT technique considers the transmission in C + L‐ and U‐bands based on Erbium‐doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). Therefore, we propose a high gain and low noise figure EDFA for L + U‐band amplification having gain bandwidth of more than 82 nm in the spectral range of 1578–1660 nm, based on a single standard S‐band forward pump source. The L + U‐band amplification is obtained by pumping the gain medium which is heavily doped with Er3+. The results based on numerical simulations show that an efficient amplification is obtained over L + U‐band with an average small signal gain of around 39 dB covering 1578–1660 nm wavelength range while incorporating a short 12 m length of Erbium‐doped fiber (EDF) at an optimized pump power of 300 mW. A maximum noise figure of 4.46 dB is observed at 1593 nm. In addition, power conversion efficiency (PCE) of different C‐band pump wavelengths has also been evaluated, and the findings show that the PCE of 1560 nm pump wavelength is 70% higher than standard 1480 nm pump wavelength at the expense of cost efficiency. Finally, the system level performance of the designed L + U‐band EDFA is investigated in a five channel wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) link.