Optical Amplifier

Generic optical amplifier

Optical Amplifiers
Important Parameters:
Gain
Saturation Output Power
Noise Figure
980 nm Pump
Signal
Amplified Signal
~10 m Erbium Doped Fiber
Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier
Optical Amplifier Applications
* B. Verbeek, JDSU
Applications of optical amplifiers
Gain bandwidth of optical amplifiers
1660 nm 1640 1620 1600 1580 1560 1540 1520 1500 1460 1440 1480
1660 nm 1640 1620 1600 1580 1560 1540 1520 1500 1460 1440 1480
Fluoride EDFA 62 nm
EDFA 52 nm
EDFA ~47 nm
Tellurite EDFA 76 nm]
TDFA 37 nm
TDFA 35 nm
Raman + Fluoride EDFA 80 nm
Dist. Raman + Fluoride EDFA 83 nm
Raman + TDFA 53 nm
Raman 18 nm
Raman 40 nm
Raman 100 nm
Raman 132 nm
C-Band L-Band S-Band U-Band E-Band
Amplifier Comparison
Gain Saturation
Output saturation power is defined as the output
power when gain drops by 3db
Power amplifiers usually operate at saturation.
Saturation gain is lower than the unsaturated
one.
|
.
|

\
|
+ =
G
G
P
Psat
G
in
max
ln 1
Amplifier gain versus power
Gain versus Amplifier length
Gain versus pump level
Noise Sources
Noise Figure
Noise Figure definition is similar as for electrical
amplifiers. Essentially a degradation of signal.



However, we do not use the optical SNR, but rather
the SNR that would be measured with an ideal
square-law detector at the input and output of the
amplifier.

out
in
SNR
SNR
NF
( ) ( ) | | ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) shot
c c
I y x A E I
t t w t y t t w t x t A E
+ + +
+ + + + =
2
2
2
sin cos u u
Where E=Electric Field, I=Detector Current,
A=Signal amplitude, x,y=Amplifier Spontaneous Emission
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Noise Figure
NF definition assumes shot-noise limited source.
Laser noise is ignored.
Detector thermal noise is ignored/negligible.

( )
shot sp sp sp sig
s
out
e s
s
in
noise shot
in
N N N
GI
SNR
B eI
I
f h
P
SNR SNR
+ +
=
=
A
= =

2
2
2 2 v
q
( ) ( ) ( )
...
1 2 2 1
1 1
2
2 2
2
+ + =

+

+ +

= shot sp sig
I G
eB n G
I G
B B e G n
G G
G
n NF
s
o
sp
s
e o
sp
sp
sp
n NF 2 ~
3 dB NF limit, for complete inversion, high gain
Noise Figure
Gain (dB)
EDFA
EDFA has revolutionized optical communications
All optical and fiber compatible
Wide bandwidth, 20~70 nm
High gain, 20~40 dB
High output power, >200mW
Bit rate, modulation format, power and wavelength
insensitive
Low distortion and low noise (NF<5dB)
Pump Source
980 nm
low ASE, low noise amplifier
1480 nm
higher power pump laser
high output power
not as efficient
degree of population inversion is lower
Gain Spectrum
Amorphous nature of silica and the codopants inside the fiber
affects the spectrum considerably.
0 0 0
2
2
2
0
0
) ( ) , (
) ( 1
) (
e e e e
e e
e
}
=
+ +
=
d f g g
P
P
T
g
g
eff
s
Gain Spectrum
Population at different levels are different resulting gain
dependence on wavelength
Different pumping level has different spectrum
EDFA configurations
EDFA Gain Transient
Channel turn-on, re-routing, network reconfiguration, link
failure.
Gain Transient
Power may become too high (nonlinearity) or too
low (degrade SNR) when add/drop channels
transient happens in us to ms
transient penalty depends on data rate, number
of EDFAs and number of channels.
power increase degrades performance due to
SPM

EDFA Transient Dynamics
Semiconductor Optical Amplifier
Operating Principle:
device physics same as EEL.
difference is that R< 10
-5
: AR, angled stripe,
window region
SOA can be operated in saturation, or
unsaturated. gain clamping
single pass chip gain: G=exp (g_modal * L)
packaging: TEC, high coupling efficiency,
isolators
Gain vs. Wavelength
40-80 nm,
InGaAs/InGaAsP.
Spanning from 1250-
1650 nm
Single SOA
Gain vs. Output Power
An SOA has a Saturation Output Power
Output Power
SOAs are linear for small input powers.
Gain Dynamics
Saturation Output Power
Saturation Output Power decreases for higher energy
photons.
Noise Figure
Noise Figure
SOAs are noisier than EDFAs because the coupling efficiency is
lower. Otherwise, they have the same theoretical limitations.
Thus, integrated SOAs should be less noisy.
Cross Gain Modulation
Saturating the SOA with a signal affects the overall
gain spectrum. Thus, all wavelengths will be slightly
modulated.
Cross Gain Modulation: solutions
low input power (linear regime). SOA not in
saturation. 8x20 Gbs 160 km. Spiekman et al,
1999
reservoir channel, SOAs in saturation. 32x2.5
gbs. 125 km. Sun et al 1999
Gain-Clamped SOA

Solution: Fixed Gain SOA
want fixed gain to eliminate XGM
Note: a laser has fixed gain above threshold (gain
clamping)

Gain Clamped SOA
gain medium is shared between SOA and a laser.
lasing at a different wavelength.
In-Line Optical Amplifier
Noise Figure can limit performance of links
Distance
* B. Verbeek, JDSU