High spatial-density, cladding-pumped 6-mode 7-core fiber amplifier for C-band operation.

S Jain,J R Hayes,K Shibahara,K Nakajima,Y Miyamoto,T Mizuno,I A Davidson,Y Jung,D J Richardson,T Sakamoto,P Barua

doi:10.1364/oe.428142

S Jain, J R Hayes + Show 9 more

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https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.428142

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Abstract

We present a C-band 6-mode 7-core fiber amplifier in an all-fiberized cladding-pumped configuration for space division multiplexed transmission supporting a record 42 spatial channels. With optimized fiber components (e.g. passively cooled pump laser diode, pump coupler, pump stripper), high power multimode pump light is coupled to the active fiber without any noticeable thermal degradation and an average gain of 18 dB and noise figure of 5.4 dB are obtained with an average differential modal gain of 3.4 dB.

Highlights

Space division multiplexing (SDM) [1,2,3,4] has emerged over the last decade as a potential longterm solution to overcome the “capacity crunch” faced by single mode silica fiber systems as they are engineered and operated ever closer to their fundamental data-carrying limits
To date more than 100 spatial channel transmission has successfully been realized with several different FM-FCFs designs such as a 3-mode 36core fiber [5], 6-mode 19-core fiber [6] and 10-mode 12-core fiber [7] and a record fiber capacity of >10 Pb/s using both the C- and L-bands has been demonstrated [8], which represents a ~100-fold increase in data carrying capacity relative to the maximum currently attainable in an optimally engineered transmission system based on single mode fiber
In order to support longer transmission distances, matching optical amplifiers are needed to simultaneously amplify all the spatial channels in a single device. Such amplifiers would be of a cladding pumped configuration to allow the sharing of high-power low-brightness pump light generated by multimode laser diode pumps and of inline fiber components such as pump couplers, isolators and gain-flattening filters among the spatial channels in order to exploit the cost reduction benefits offered by SDM technology

Summary

Introduction

Space division multiplexing (SDM) [1,2,3,4] has emerged over the last decade as a potential longterm solution to overcome the “capacity crunch” faced by single mode silica fiber systems as they are engineered and operated ever closer to their fundamental data-carrying limits. Such amplifiers would be of a cladding pumped configuration to allow the sharing of high-power low-brightness pump light generated by multimode laser diode pumps and of inline fiber components such as pump couplers, isolators and gain-flattening filters among the spatial channels in order to exploit the cost reduction benefits offered by SDM technology.

Results

Conclusion