Excited-State Absorption at 1.5 µm in Er3+-Doped Fiber Amplifiers

Abstract

Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) can very efficiently convert pump to signal energy. Quantum efficiencies higher than 80 % with 1.48 pm pump [1], and 93% when pumped at 980 nm [2] are reported. However, even higher values should be theoretically possible for an ideal EDFA. Various physical effects may lead to quantum efficiency (QE) reduction. Not all of them are quite well understood yet. At Erbium concentrations above 100 ppm by weight the pump loss is partly explained by energy transfer between two excited ions resulting in upcon- version process [3]. At low concentrations Excited-State Absorption (ESA) could be a more significant effect reducing QE. ESA of photons from 1.5 |im band have been predicted from absorption measurements [4] and also observed [5]. However, to our knowledge, no quantitative analysis has been made which would distinguish between the contributions of ESA and two-particle upconversion when measurements of short wavelength luminescence were performed.