Dual-Stage Double-Pass Extended L-Band Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier with Improved Gain Performance

Abstract

Extended L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) have attracted much attention in recent years despite their relatively low gain levels. In this paper, a dual-stage extended L-band EDFA with improved gain level is demonstrated by using an Er/Yb/P co-doped fiber-based double-pass structure assisted by a low noise pre-amplifier. High gain levels of up to 48.79 dB at 1566 nm and 20.05 dB at 1621.4 nm are achieved with saturated output power at 1605 nm of 20.58 dBm under a total pump power of only 400 mW. Bandwidths with the gain of more than 20 and 30 dB are reached up to 66 nm (1555.4–1621.4 nm) and 58.4 nm (1557.5–1615.9 nm), respectively. The noise figure benefited by using the low noise pre-amplifier is 5.40 ± 1.55 dB in the 1565–1610 nm range. The wide gain bandwidth, high gain level and relatively low pump power give it great potential for future high-capacity optical fiber communication systems.