Evaluation of quenching effect on gain characteristics in silica-based erbium doped fiber using numerical simulation

Abstract

The effect of Er 3+ concentration quenching on the gain characteristics of silica-based Er 3+ doped fiber (EDF) was investigated at 77 and 300 K, focusing on the pair induced quenching (PIQ) in silica-based EDF. By the measurements of gain spectra and the gain saturation at 77 and 300 K, the degradation of the gain in EDF with higher Er 3+ ion concentration was verified to exist, which is due to the interaction between Er 3+ ions. Also, the degrees of PIQ in four EDFs were examined by the numerical model. It is estimated that even about 2% paired Er 3+ ions in EDF can cause 15% degradation of the population density of the 4I 13/2 level, which leads to about 1 dB degradation of the gain spectrum in the C-band wavelength region. The degradation of the population density of the 4I 13/2 level is discussed in connection with the number of paired Er 3+ ions in silica-based EDF.