ISSN 1054660X, Laser Physics, 2010, Vol. 20, No. 8, pp. 17471751.

FIBER
OPTICS

Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2010.

Original Text Astro, Ltd., 2010.

GainFlattened ErbiumDoped Fiber Amplifier

with Flexible Selective Band for Optical Networks1
N. Md. Yusoffa, b, M. H. Abu Bakara, S. J. Sheihc,
F. R. Mahamd Adikanc, and M. A. Mahdia, *
a

Wireless and Photonics Networks Research Center, Faculty of Engineering, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
b Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Science and Technology,
University of Technology Malaysia International Campus, Jalan Semarak, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
c
Taiwan International Securities Group, 33F, No.97, TunHwa S. Rd., Sec.2, Taipei 106, Taiwan
d
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*email: mdadzir@eng.upm.edu.my, adzir@ieee.org
Received February 28, 2010; in final form, March 11, 2010; published online July 2, 2010

AbstractErbiumdoped fiber amplifier with flat gain over 30 nm bandwidth is demonstrated using flexible
selective band methods. The band optical amplifier was designed to cater 44 wavelength division multiplexing
channels which were separated into bands of 4 nm. Without using any gain flattening filter, the gain of optical
amplifier was maintained at 19 dB with a maximum gain variation of less than 1.6 dB even though the input
signal power was varied from 19 to 6 dBm. The amplifier was able to maintain 1 dB gain flatness with 83%
chance for any selective bands of 4 nm within the wavelength range from 1530 to 1565 nm. This feature is very
attractive to support band optical networks.
DOI: 10.1134/S1054660X10150144
1

INTRODUCTION

Due to dramatic growth of information traffic and

the need for flexible network, the demand of having a
flat and broad gain spectrum in telecommunication
window for an optical amplifier rises as the number of
channels in wave lengthdivision multiplexing
(WDM) network systems increases rapidly. Therefore,
the telecommunication bandwidth in the WDM net
work needs to be widen up. Additional transmission
windows have been used to cope with this rising
demand in the WDM transmission, which are namely
as shortwave length band (Sband) [1] that lies from
1460 to 1530 nm and longwave length band (Lband)
[2, 3] that lies from 1560 to 1610 nm. However, the
growth of WDM channels results in an increase in the
complexity of the optical crossconnect. Without hav
ing to access every single wavelength or subchannels
in a wavelength, all the transmitted wavelenths need to
be grouped into bands with the intention of reducing
the complexity in WDM band architecture. Band
architecture could reduce the number of ports used in
an optical crossconnect which is more appropriate to
networks with many transmission lines.
Multiplexing in WDM system is mostly dependent
on the signal wavelength, the input signal power and
the gain medium absorption and emission crosssec
tion, where a stream of wavelength channels in the
conventional band (Cband) regime will be amplified
to a preferred power level [4]. Full WDM amplifica
1 The article is published in the original.

tion using wavelength selective photonics crosscon

nects (WSPXC) with lowcost narrowband erbium
doped fiber amplifier was performed where the micro
electromechanicalsystem (MEMS) mirrors were
tuned for WDM channel equalization functionality
[5]. However, the usage of MEMS optical switch in
WSPXC contributed to some losses which will deteri
orate the system efficiency and performance. Wave
length band conversion in periodically poled
MgO:LiNbO3 was performed where the development
and deployment of efficient and scalable band archi
tectures feasible for core optical networks [6]. How
ever, the cost increased as the number of channels per
band increased due to the cost of wavelength convert
ers for each port.
Erbiumdoped fiber amplifier (EDFA), that use
erbium ion as the rareearth material for amplifica
tion, has the ability to provide significant amplifica
tion in all three transmission windows which are S
band [7, 8], Cband [9, 10], and Lband [11, 12].
However, EDFA which operates in the Cband regime
of 15291560 nm, offers some advantages of having
high gain [13], low noise figure [14], wide bandwidth
[15] and high saturation output power. The band opti
cal amplifier need to be designed to cope with the vari
ation of operating condition in EDFA such as instance
optical add/drop multiplexing (OADM), link loss
change [16], pump deterioration and network recon
figurations. Due to these reasons, gain flattening filters
(GFFs), such as alloptical feedback loops [17] and
MachZehnder filter [18], are used to equalize both

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YUSOFF et al.
1530.33 nm
1531.11 nm
44 WDM
channels

Signal
IN

Isolator

WSC

Signal
OUT

EDF
(8 m)

1563.87 nm
1564.68 nm

Isolator

2% signal
IN

980 nm
LD

2% signal
OUT

Fig. 1. Experimental setup of optical amplifier for the application of selective band.

the signal power and the optical signaltonoise ratio

(OSNR) performances of multichannels over a broad
spectral width. However, most of the filters mentioned
arc somewhat sensitive to temperature changes. Nev
ertheless, the use of these GFFs in the design will con
tribute to some additional losses and cost. Further
more, adding and dropping the channels can caused
some gain fluctuations in WDM band architecture. As
a result, the gain needs to be clamped at a certain con
stant value. In order to obtain a flat gain in Lband
regime, a single stage of gain clamping with pumping
wavelength of 1480 nm was achieved by utilizing the
Cband counterpropagating amplified spontaneous
emission (ASE) [19]. Adjusting the centre wavelength
or the reflectivity of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in
dualstage gainclamp EDFA has been demonstrated
in finding out the level of gain clamping [20]. Hence,
the gain medium will have a fixed population inversion
since the amount of photons oscillating along the fiber
length remains constant.
In this paper, we demonstrate an optical amplifier
with simple design where all the channels were trans
mitted in bands of 4 nm. These bands consisted of four
different signal wavelengths with a channel spacing of
0.8 nm or 100 GHz which lies in the Cband (1530
1560 nm) region. Without using any gain flattening fil
ter, a flat gain of 19 dB is achieved with only a small
gain variation of less than 1.6 dB. Cost reduction and
lower losses are the advantages offered by this band
optical amplifier. This band amplifier is able to gener
ate a substantially flatten wavelength response with the
noise figure of less than 5.7 dB.
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Figure 1 shows the experimental setup of a band
optical amplifier which comprises of 44 WDM chan
nels, an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA), a laser
diode working at 980 nm, and a couple of distributed
feedback laser diodes, isolators and wavelength selec
tive couplers (WSC). A high efficiency of flat Cband
erbiumdoped fiber (EDF) was used in this experi
ment which has a peak absorption coefficient of
8 dB/m at 1530 nm, a numerical aperture of 0.23, a

mode field diameter of 5.5 and a cut off wavelength of

1150 nm.
This setup was designed to obtain the flat gain char
acteristic of each individual band when the channels
were varied from 1530.33 to 1564.68 nm. These chan
nels were generated by distributed feedback laser
diodes that have a fixed frequency spacing of 100 GHz
or 0.8 nm in wavelength. Generated channels were
then connected to an optical multiplexer (MUX),
where it was used to turn on and off the individual
channel at one time and grouped them into the desired
band. Each selected band, consisting of 4 consecutive
wavelengths, was connected to a passive coupler with
the 2% leg was used for signal input. The purpose of
using input signal was to saturate the input signals for
automatic gain control. An isolator was used to pre
vent amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise
propagated in the backward direction. The EDF was
pumped by a laser diode pump source at 980 nm cou
pled through 980/1550 WSC. This device was used to
combine the incoming input signal beam with the
pump beam to an 8 m EDF which acts as the gain
medium. The amplification of those bands occurs
when the pump light went through the 8 m EDF caus
ing the excitation of ions and stimulated emission to
happen. In order to prevent any light oscillation in the
optical amplifier, an isolator was placed at the other
end of the EDF. Finally, another passive coupler was
used for monitoring the excess pump light from the
transmission before the output was observed using
OSA.
In this experiment, there are two kinds of cases that
need to be considered in generating the signal at differ
ent wavelengths. The first case was separating all the
44 channels into 11 different optical bands where each
band will have 4 different channels. So the first optical
band begun with the following set: 1530.33, 1531.11,
1531.90, and 1532.68 nm. The following band was
shifted by 3.2 nm where it consists of 1533.48,
1534.28, 1535.08, and 1535.88 nm. The band contin
ued to shift until it reached the last band which con
sists of the following set: 1562.28, 1563.08, 1563.88,
and 1564.68 nm. The second case was adding or drop
ping the channel for every four different signal wave
lengths. So the first optical band begun with the same
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GAINFLATTENED ERBIUMDOPED FIBER AMPLIFIER

Power, dBm
5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
1530
1538

Gain and noise figure, dB

20
18
16
14
12
10
8
1546

1554
1562
Wavelength, nm

Fig. 2. Output spectra of the band optical amplifier.

set as in the first case which is 1530.33, 1531.11,

1531.90, and 1532.68 nm. Then the first wavelength
will be dropped off and the next band will have the
following set: 1531.11, 1531.90, 1532.68, and
1533.46 nm. Each optical band will be shifted for every
100 GHz or 0.8 nm in wavelength. The optical band
continued to shift until it reached the last optical band
which consists of the following set: 1562.28, 1563.08,
1563.88, and 1564.68 nm. Overall, there were 41 pos
sible generated bands in this second case.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 2 illustrates the output spectra of the band
optical amplifier when the total input power for each
band was equal to 9 dBm (15 dBm/channel). By
using the first method, it can be seen that the average
output power is around 10 dBm (4 dBm/channel).
However, there were some slight fluctuations which
were due to the presence of the ASE hump at the
region of 15301538 nm. The existence of this ASE
hump is due to the emission characteristic of the
erbium itself. The ASE humps at the first two trans
mission bands were lower compared to other bands as
the ASE energy was directed towards the signal ampli
fication. The ASE hump increased as the longer wave
length band is used. The highest ASE hump occurred
during the last wavelength band where most inverted
ions decayed as spontaneous emission rather than
amplified signal. As a result, the amplification of signal
photons at these particular bands tends to be lower
compared to the other bands.
The graph plotted in Fig. 3 displays the gain and
noise figure when the total signal power of 19 dBm
was used throughout the bands. It can be concluded
that a flat gain pattern around 19 dB with slight varia
tions was achieved. EDFA, which has homogeneous
broadening characteristic, forced the energy that was
stored outside the signal wavelength to be amplified as
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2010

6
4
1529 1533 1537 1541 1545 1549 1553 1557 1561 1565
Wavelength, nm
Fig. 3. Gain and noise figure for different signal wave
lengths.

signal wavelength which consequently suppressed the

total ASE generation inside the gain region. However,
there were some fluctuations of gain at the second and
the last transmission bands due to the presence of ASE
hump. The gain flatness of 1.5 and 1.4 dB were
achieved for the second and last transmitted bands
respectively which were the worst among the other
bands. Also, we observed that noise figure was lower at
the longer wavelength regime than that at shorter
wavelength regime because of the increment in the
emission to absorption crosssection ratio from longer
to shorter wavelength [21]. But overall, most of the
noise figures were less than 5.7 dB.
A flat gain pattern with a variation of less than
1.6 dB was achieved, when the total input power was
varied from 19 to 6 dBm, which is depicted in
Fig. 4. On the other hand, the noise figure decreased
steadily when the input power varied from 19 to
10 dBm and it then increased gradually until the
input power reached 6 dBm. When the input power
was low, small signal amplification happened due to
the limited number of photons from the incoming sig
nal. As a result, low signaltonoise ratio was obtained.
However, when the input power was high, signal
amplification tends to be higher as the numbers of sig
nal photons that stimulated the excited ions were high.
Due to this, an output with higher signaltonoise
ratio was obtained. However, when the input power
was greater than 10 dBm, the noise figure increased
gradually until it reached the last input signal. This is
due to source spontaneous emission which was gener
ated by the devices that evolved together with the sig
nal powers. The source spontaneous emission was
amplified simultaneously with the signal in which to
be summed up to become amplifier spontaneous emis
sion.
For the second case, where the optical band was
shifted by 0.8 nm and the total input signal power was
fixed at 6 dBm, the number of bands generated was

1750

YUSOFF et al.
7.0

21
Gmax

6.5

Gmin

6.0

17
15

NFmax

5.5

13

NFmin

5.0

11
20

18

16

14 12 10
Input power, dBm

Noise figure, dB

Gain, dB

19

4.5
4

Fig. 4. Gain and noise figure for different total signal input power.

more than the first method as it has 41 generated

bands. The desired gain flatness of less than 1.6 dB
within four channels narrowband was achieved
throughout the 41 transmitted bands. Referring to
Fig. 5, 83% of the transmitted bands have only a small
variation between the maximum and minimum gain
which is less than 1.0 dB. When the signals were
located in the wavelength range of 15331537 and
15601565 nm, the gain flatness was larger than
1.0 dB that represents 17% chance only. Based on the
experimental findings, the proposed optical amplifier
can offer narrowband amplification within the whole
Cband wavelength range (15391565 nm) with the
gain flatness of smaller than 1.6 dB. Therefore, it can
be utilized for any specified narrowband signals ampli
fication within this Cband regime where the flexibility
of amplifying selective band can be achieved.

We have experimentally studied the optical gain,

gain flatness, output power, and noise figure for simul
taneous flexible selective band amplifications in
EDFA for different input signals levels. It was observed
that the gainflatness was achievable using these two
flexible selective bands methods. Transmitting the
WDM channel in band of four wavelengths gives con
stant gainspectra even though it is mostly dependent
on the population inversion along the fixed fiber
length. With these 44 channels simultaneously ampli
fication, we obtained 19.0 0.7 dB essentially flat sig
nal gain from 1530 to 1565 nm bandwidth with noise
figure less than 5.7 dB when all the channels were sep
arated into 11 different optical bands. For the second
case, when the adding or dropping the channel for
every four different signal wavelengths, flat gain pat
tern which is less than 1.6 dB was achieved throughout
the 41 transmitted bands. The amplifier design was
able to provide 1.0 dB gain flatness for 34 transmitted
bands (83% chance) within the Cband wavelength
range.

1.411.60

1.211.40

1.011.20

0.811.00

0.610.80

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0.210.40

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CONCLUSIONS

Gain flatness, dB
Fig. 5. Gain flatness within four channel narrowband.

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