Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 208 (2020) 164498

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Optik
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijleo

Original research article

On the Analysis and Comparison of Decoupled Modal Gain

T
Equalization Systems for Four-Mode (4M)-EDFAs
Taban Qayoom*, Gausia Qazi
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Srinagar 190006, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: SpaceDivision Multiplexing (SDM) has gained considerable interest as a promising means to
ASE Ratio increase transmission capacity per fiber. For proper use of this technology, optical components of
Doping profiles transmission line including Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) need to be re-examined. In
Modal Gain Equalization this work we analyze modal gain equalization systems obtained from extended Giles model for
Erbium doped profile
4M-EDFA. We introduced a simpler method of calculation of two radial overlap factors extracted
Overlap factors
from the model using standard B–V curve thus proposing two decoupled systems for Modal Gain
SDM amplifiers
Equalization. In Decoupled Mode Specific Pump Combination (MSPC) system so obtained,
Differential Modal Gain (DMG) was reduced to 1.55 dB with mean gain of about 28.72 dB. For
Modified Erbium Doped Profile (MEDP) system we obtained an optimum Multi-Well Profile. The
DMG here showed further reduction to 1.3254 dB with mean gain of about 24.24 dB. Further we
report investigation on evolution of ASE for 4M-EDFA for the first time with new performance
metric namely ASE ratio to indicate the deviation of noise between four modes. The ASE levels
reached in MEDP are smaller than MSPC system thus enabling reduction in Noise Figure.
Simulation results and comparison indicated that in MEDP, DMG is more sensitive to variation in
length, concentration and wavelength. Each spatial channel in our designed MEDP and MSPC
system as well as simple 4M-EDFA system gave good pre-amplification performance for data rates
upto 15 Gb/s.

1. Introduction

Over the last few decades methods for increasing transmission rates in optical fibers have been extensively studied [1–4]. Owing
to the non-linearity of refractive index in an optical fiber, it is not possible to continue increasing spectral efficiency by increasing the
launched power [2]. To achieve cost effective improvement in system capacity, new techniques are being explored. SDM based on
Few-Mode Fibers (FMFs) has been extensively studied as possible solution for high bit rates [3–5]. In past 6–7 years different SDM
EDFAs have been proposed and investigated in order to address the need for optical amplification in long-haul communication
systems [3,4]. SDM transmission can be practically implemented using Multi-Core Fibers (MCF) and FMFs [3]. In case of MCF EDFA
core-pumped as well as cladding pumped have been demonstrated [4]. More recently both core-pumped and cladding-pumped 10-
mode EDFA were reported [5,6]. These two SDM technologies were integrated to further increase the spatial channel diversity and 3-
mode, 7 core SDM amplifier was presented as core-pumped and a 3-mode, 6 core SDM amplifier was demonstrated as cladding
pumped system [4]. In MCF each core can be used as a unique channel to carry the current data transmission capacity whereas in FMF
each transverse mode can be used as a path [7–9].

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: taban_07phd17@nitsri.net (T. Qayoom).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2020.164498
Received 19 October 2019; Received in revised form 2 March 2020; Accepted 3 March 2020
0030-4026/ © 2020 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
T. Qayoom and G. Qazi Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 208 (2020) 164498

Optical Amplification with similar gain across all channel modes is essential to compensate linear loss of transmission link [10].
Thus the existing technology of EDFA has to be revisited and upgraded in order to ensure similar gains between different guided
modes [11]. The main design challenge in FM-EDFA is to identify FRIP, erbium doping distribution and pumping combination, to
achieve mode equalization of optical gain and noise figure [12]. The main goal is to design an FM-EDFA with minimal differential
modal gain (DMG) and differential noise figure (DMNF) along with reduced noise figure and high modal gain [13]. All these re-
quirements should be achieved by keeping refractive index profiles and erbium doping as simple as possible while using minimum
number of low-order pumps [14,15]. To ensure this one of the possible solutions is tailoring the transverse intensity pattern of pump
beam that is injected within FM-EDFA [16,17]. The pump beam profile should be carefully controlled and stable in time and should
not cause strong injection losses that reduce amplifier efficiency. Besides higher order pump modes can generate transverse spatial
hole burning which is an undesired effect [18–20].
In [10,17,20] various techniques are identified to achieve considerable modal gain equalization in 4M-EDFA. The 4M-EDFA
systems so designed had modified erbium doped profile in addition to tailored transverse modal pump thus making the designed
system complex. In our work we decouple the two techniques into two simple systems with considerable reduction in DMG. For the
design of FM-EDFAs accurate modification of erbium doping profiles is usually employed to minimize the maximum gain difference
between signal modes. These doping profiles usually include multi-ring or multi-level doping profiles, triple ring, ring + centrally
doped region and double ring [21,22]. The fabrication of these doping profiles required complex procedures, in order to ease this
process simpler doping profile that provides considerable Modal Gain Equalization has been aimed at in our work.
In this paper we use Linearly Polarized Approximation (LPA) to analyze the performance of LP01, LP11, LP21 and LP02 modes in a
4M-EDFA. Two overlap factors have been extracted from Extended Giles model for FM-EDFA. A simple new method was introduced
for calculation of overlap factors using standard B–V curve to depict the overlap between LP pump and signal modes. We further
calculate the coupling factors to reflect the injection efficiency of pump modes into EDFA. We separately analyze the decoupled gain
equalization system achieved by appropriate mode specific pump combination as was implied by first radial overlap factor referred in
our text as MSPC . The other radial overlap factor MEDP depicts the overlap of LP pump and signal modes with erbium doped profile.
This implies that in case of 4M-EDFA modal gain equalization can also be achieved by obtaining an appropriate modified erbium
doped profile. An optimum Multi-Well Ion Profile was proposed in our work. Thus from the two techniques we proposed two
decoupled systems namely Mode Specfic Pump Combination (MSPC) and Modified Erbium Doped Profile (MEDP) 4M-EDFA system.
In [10] only LP11 pump mode was used for modal gain equalization. Since LP11 pump mode is itself produced from fundamental
LP01 pump mode, a part of this mode remains unutilized. Our MSPC system provided comparatively simpler pump arrangement of
LP01, LP02 and LP21 pump modes. The LP11 pump mode in [10] was used for excitation of bi-annular profile, the mean gain obtained
was about 21.3 dB with 0.6 dB DMG reduction. Our decoupled MEDP system used a simpler multi-well ion profile making fabrication
process easier with comparatively higher mean gain. In [17], 4 mode group EDFA was designed by tailoring erbium ion distribution.
The EDFA designed gave gain close to 20 dB and amplified LP11 and LP21 modes equally. In our 4M-EDFA MEDP system, a com-
paratively simpler optimum multi-well ion profile was developed which provided larger mean gain of 24.24 dB spread over four
signal modes with satisfactory reduction in DMG to about 1.324 dB. In [20] a pump power combination of LP01, LP02, LP21 and LP51
was used to achieve a mean gain of about 20 dB at lower DMG value. In our MSPC 4M-EDFA system we used a simpler pump
combination of only three pump modes with satisfactory reduction in DMG to about 1.55 dB at larger mean gain value of about 28.72
dB. We further compare the performance of two systems in case of 4M-EDFA. In MEDP, there is more deviation inDMG with length,
concentration and wavelength. We investigated and compared the ASE evolution of four modes in both decoupled systems for the
first time. The ASE levels reached in MEDP are smaller than MSPC system. Thus noise figure values of four modes are reduced to a
large extent in this system. Thus it can be concluded that MEDP system gives good performance in terms of reduction of DMG and ASE
levels with the drawback of increased sensitivity to wavelength, erbium ion concentration and length. Our designed systems pre-
dicted that receiver performance is independent of modal distribution of signal in EDFA. Each spatial channel in our designed 4M-
MEDP and 4M-MSPC system as well as simple 4M-EDFA system will give good pre-amplification performance for data rates upto 15
Gb/s.

2. Extraction of overlap factors- MSPC , MEDP

We discuss the design optimization of 4M-EDFA. An extended Giles model enables us to analyze the impact of mode profiles of
pump, signal input beam and erbium doping profile on gain performances [10]. In the extended model the FM propagation of input
signal mode along the EDFA is governed by (1)
2 a
dPs,i
= Ps,i Is,lm (r, )[N2 (r, ,z) es,lm N1 (r, , z) as,lm]rdrd
dz 00 (1)
th
Where Ps,i is the input i signal mode power, Is,lm (r, ) is the input signal intensity, N2 (r, ,z) and N1 (r, , z) is the ion population in
metastable and ground state respectively and No (r, ,z) is the total erbium ion concentration, es,lm and as,lm are the emission and
absorption cross sections respectively. Assuming that the absorption and emission cross sections of pump and signal modes re-
spectively are equal for all modes, to achieve modal gain equalization in EDFA, Eqs. (2) & (3) should be satisfied [10]
dPs,lm1 dPs,lm2
=
dz dz (2)

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T. Qayoom and G. Qazi Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 208 (2020) 164498

2 a 2 a
N0 (r, )Is,lm1 (r, )Ip (r, ) N0 (r, )Is,lm2 (r, )Ip (r, )
rdrd = rdrd
00
F(r, , z) 00
F(r, , z) (3)

Eq. (3) indicates that the variation of modal signal power in axial direction depends on Erbium Ion Distribution N0 (r, ) , Input Signal
Modal Intensity Is,lm1 (r, ), Is,lm2 (r, ) and Pump Intensity Ip (r, ) . Thus by exploiting these parameters two decoupled modal gain
equalization systems can be obtained. The above formulated FM-Giles model leads to extraction of two radial overlap factors [10]. In
the first overlap factor MSPC , the focus is on obtaining summation of appropriate mode specific pumps Ip,lm (r, ) to maximize and
equalize this overlap factor between different modes. This leads to Mode Specific Pump Combination System (MSPC). Radial
overlap factor MSPC , with signal modal intensity and pump modal intensity clubbed together is represented as
2

MSPC = Is,lm (r, )Ip,lm (r, )rdrd

00 (4)

In the second radial overlap factor MEDP , the focus will be modification of erbium doped concentration profile N0 (r, ) to achieve
maximization and equalization of overlap factor between different modes. This leads to second decoupled Modified Erbium Doped
Profile System (MEDP). The radially dependent erbium ion concentration profile, signal modal intensity and fundamental pump
modal intensity are clubbed together and represented as
2

MEDP = Is,lm (r, )Ip,01 (r, )N0 (r)rdrd

00 (5)

Under the assumption of EDFA treated as standard homogeneous optical fiber under weak guidance conditions, Is,lm (r, ) and
Ip,lm (r, ) given in Eq. (5) as Normalized Signal and Pump Intensities of modes in core has been thereby calculated as

Is,lm (r, ) = Ip,lm (r, )=

[Jl ( ) cosl
Ulm r
a
]2
=
[Jl ( ) sinl
Ulm r
a
]2
2 2
Ulm r Ulmr
[Jl ( )cosl ]2 rdrd [Jl ( )sinl ]2 rdrd
00
a
00
a
(6)

Where (a) is the core radius and (U) is the Radial Phase Parameter.

2.1. Analysis of MSPC System

A step-index, uniform doped EDFA with core radius of 10 um and numerical aperture of 0.1077 was considered to guide four
modes in the fiber. At signal wavelength (λs) of 1550 nm the normalized frequency (Vs ) was found to be of value 4.3 and at Pump
wavelength (λp) of 980 nm the normalized frequency (Vp) was found to be of value 6.9. The values of propagation constants for LP01,
LP11, LP21 and LP02 signal modes and LP01, LP11, LP21, LP02, LP31, LP12 and LP41 pump modes are summarized in Tables 1 and 2.
The propagation constants of various pump and signal modes were calculated from B–V curve given in Fig. 1(a). The normalized
pump and signal intensities were obtained from Eq. (6) and overlap factors were calculated from Eq. (4) between four signal and
seven pump modes guided by EDFA. Fig. 1(b) depicts the overlap between all possible signal and pump modes. It is observed that for
equalizing the four-mode system we use the basic LP01 pump mode. LP21 signal mode because of mismatch in shape has least overlap
with LP01 pump mode resulting in smaller gain. To increase the gain of LP21, a moderate LP21 pump mode is needed. The use of LP21
pump power will in turn decrease the overlap with LP02, therefore small amount of LP02 is also required in mode specific pump
combination. Since it is difficult to tune higher order modes, therefore LP01 pump mode is more suitable for tuning purpose. The
overlap factors obtained in Fig. 1 are normalized and only give the idea of radial performance between modes. These do not take into
account the value of pump power and input signal power. Thus these factors aid in selecting the best possible pump combination for
modal gain equalization. The difference in gain between the modes is because different modes loose power into cladding differently
depending on their shapes. Thus to equalize and compensate these losses appropriate pump power combination needs to be obtained.
Thus equalization can be obtained by appropriate tuning of selected pump modes namely LP01, LP21 and LP02. Generally the
power distribution of pump modes injected into FM-EDFA fiber is defined by coupling coefficients given by following equation [24]
2
ci = Ein (r, )E*i (r, )rdrd
00 (7)

Table 1
Propagation Constants of Signal Modes (LPlm) for 4M-EDFA for V = 4.3.
Mode Type (LPlm) Propagation Constant (b) Radial Phase Parameter (U= V 1 b ) Normalized Radial Phase Parameter (U/a)

LP01 0.8 1.925 0.1925 × 106

LP11 0.49 3.0743 0.30743 × 106
LP21 0.132 4.0108 0.40108 × 106
LP02 0.088 4.1112 0.41112 × 106

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Table 2
Propagation Constants of Pump Modes (LPlm) for 4M-EDFA for V = 6.9.
Mode Type (LPlm) Propagation Constant (b) Radial Phase Parameter (U= V 1 b ) Normalized Radial Phase Parameter (U/a)

LP01 0.9 2.1835 0.21835 × 106

LP11 0.754 3.4247 0.34247 × 106
LP21 0.573 4.512 0.4512 × 106
LP02 0.546 4.652 0.4652 × 106
LP31 0.36 5.524 0.5524 × 106
LP12 0.25 5.979 0.5979 × 106
LP41 0.0105 6.868 0.6868 × 106

Fig. 1. Standard Universal (B-V) Curve of an Optical Fiber [23] (a); Calculated Overlap between all possible signal and pump modes (b).

Where Ei is spatial profile of each m, n mode including the sine and cosine factors and Ein is the spatial input field. The input field
here is Laguerre-Gaussian profile described as
|n|
2r 2 2 2r2 r2 r2
nm (r, )= L nm exp exp j {cos(|n| ) for l 0, sin(|n| ) for l < 0}
w 20 w 20 w 20 P0 (8)

Where m and n describes the azimuthal and radial indices respectively and r is the radius of curvature, w0 is the spot size and is L nm
the Laguerre polynomial. The injection efficiency of three selected pump modes namely LP01, LP21 and LP02 given by Eq. (7) was
plotted in Fig. 2(a), (b) and (c) respectively. From Fig. 2(a) and (b) we observe that LP01 pump mode and LP02 pump modes have
tendency of intercoupling between them and LP21 mode has least coupling with any other pump mode. Since both these pump modes
have been used for equalization, therefore this can be used as an advantage.

2.2. Analysis of MEDP System

We separately analyze the second decoupled system for modal gain equalization that involves modified erbium doped profile. It is
generally assumed that erbium distribution is constant along azimuthal direction. We had observed from Eq. (3) that appropriate
modification of erbium doped profile in radial direction can maximize overlap and hence result in equalization of gain. The Radial
Overlap factor applicable here is MEDP and is given by Eq. (5). We adopt a strategy of obtaining combined mode profile in radial

Fig. 2. Coupling Factors for LP01 pump (a); Coupling Factors for LP02 pump (b); Coupling Factors for LP21 pump (c).

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T. Qayoom and G. Qazi Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 208 (2020) 164498

Fig. 3. Combined Signal Mode Profile (a); Approximate Erbium Ion Distribution (b).

direction by summation of LP01, LP11, LP21 and LP02 given by lm= 01,11,21,02 Is,lm (r, ) . This mode summation profile is plotted in
Fig. 3(a). We initially approximately replicate the combined mode profile into Approximate Radial Erbium Ion Distribution. This
enables maximum utilization of ions as an active medium for amplification of four signal modes. A symmetrical step fitted profile
distribution (N0 (r, ) given by Eq. (9) is chosen as it is easier to fabricate EDFA with step distribution U[R] rather than graded
distribution

N0 (r, ) = 0.98(U[R]–U[ R 2]) + 0.85(U[ R 2]–U[ R 5]) + 0.922(U[ R 5]–U[ R 10]) (9)

The erbium ions have negligible impact on the Refractive Index Profile of EDFA, thus Refractive Index Profile is assumed to be
uniform. Hence, linearly polarized modal analysis holds true for this case. Since here we are concentrating on modification of erbium
doped profile, therefore for amplification we have used only LP01 pump mode at the input. The extra freedom provided by LP01 pump
allows us to make our design less complex at the cost of fabrication. The approximate symmetrical erbium ion profile around r = 0
that replicates the combined mode profile is given in Fig. 3(b).
In order to obtain an optimum doped profile, the overlap factors MEDP for four signal modes were repeatedly calculated for
various values of width(W) and Depth(D). Fig. 4(a) shows the variation of overlap factors so obtained with width of profile. Overlap
factors were observed to remain constant and did not show much variation with width. Thus a Width of 3 um was chosen and overlap
factors for four modes were calculated again for various values of Depth (D) as shown in Fig. 4(b). As can be observed from figure, the
values of overlap factors decrease with increase in Depth. For smaller values of Depth, overlap factors are higher, but the difference
between respective overlap factors for various modes is also higher. This shows that for smaller values of Depth, although gain in
different modes will be high but DMG will also be high. It is also difficult to fabricate an Erbium Doped Profile with smaller variation
in concentration, thus smaller values of depth are not preferable. Thus depth of 0.8 was chosen for optimum equalization between the
modes. The optimum profile so obtained for the equalization of gain between the modes is a multi-well profile as plotted in Fig. 4(c).
This profile can be easily fabricated in an EDFA using Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD) combined with solution-doping
[4]. As compared to the method used to realize SMF performs, the basic need for the realization of multi-well profile is to appro-
priately adjust erbium content in the core of optical fiber. Although in case of MCVD combined to solution doping accurate control of
the doped profile in EDFA is hardly attainable, but the optimized multi-well profile obtained here with larger depths can be easily
realized using this fabrication technique.
To overcome the disadvantages in this technique, vapor-phase doping technique could also be used. In the next section we
simulate and compare 4M-EDFA systems on the basis of previously analyzed decoupled systems obtained from extraction of radial
overlap factors.

Fig. 4. Variation of Overlap Factor with respect to width (W) (a); Variation of Overlap Factor with respect to normalized depth (b); Optimized
Erbium Ion Distribution for Modal Gain Equalization (c).

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Fig. 5. Simulation Setup for design and analysis of 4M-EDFA system.

3. Verifications and Discussions for Designed Decoupled Systems

The generalized simulation setup of a FM-EDFA designed in optisystem [24] is described in Fig.5. At the input end, the multimode
pump source simulates the actual environment of pump excitation that consists of individual phase masks, an attenuator for tuning of
pump modes and mode combiner for converting single mode signal into multimode signal. The multimode input signal and multi-
mode pump signal are combined using dichroic mirror and appropriately focused into FM-EDFA module for amplification. At the
output end Modal Demultiplexer is used to separate and analyze the summation of modes into individual modes.
The generalized parameter set for above simulation setup is given in Table 3. In the next section, we investigate and compare
performance of two decoupled LP 4M-EDFA systems obtained from extraction of two radial overlap factors.

3.1. Simulative Verification of MSPC System

In this section we investigate pump combination required for equalization of modal gain of various signal modes. The generalized
setup given in Fig. 5 will work as an LP 4M-EDFA system capable of guiding four signal modes and seven pump modes. In Fig. 6(a),
the modal gain of all signal modes is plotted with respect to variation in LP01 pump power from 225 mW to 500 mW. The pump power
of LP21 and LP02 mode is kept fixed at 500 mW. From the figure it is observed that since the overlap between LP21 and LP01 is small
thus tuning of LP01 pump power does not have much influence on the gain of LP21 signal mode. For the rest of modes gain increases
with the increase in LP01 pump power with crossover point obtained at LP01 pump power equal to 257.95501 mW. At this value of
pump power, the gain between LP01 signal mode and LP21 signal mode is equalized to 29.155 dB.
The gain of LP02 signal mode is equal to 28.8059 dB and that of LP11 signal mode is 27.615016 dB. Another crossover point is
obtained at LP01 pump equal to 500 mW at which gain of LP21 = LP02 = 29.562 dB, gain of LP01 mode is equal to 30.55 dB and that
of LP11 is equal to 28.685 dB. The four basic parameters usually used for the evaluation of Single Mode EDFA performance are gain,
noise figure, pump efficiency and gain ripple [25]. Here in Fig. 6(b), the absolute magnitude of DMG was plotted with respect to LP01
pump power varying from 225 mW to 500 mW. This value gives us the maximum deviation between highest and lowest signal gains
for various modes. The |DMG| between ith mode at wavelength and jth mode at same wavelength is given by
|DMG| = Max{|Gi, Gj, |} (10)

A typical trend was observed with |DMG| decreasing with the increase in pump power, reaching a minimum value of 1.55 dB at
pump power of 264.937 mW and after that |DMG| increases with increase in LP01 pump power. The simulation results further
confirm our mathematical analysis done in Section 2.1 where we had concluded from calculation of overlap factors that appropriate
combination of LP01, LP21 and LP02 pump will result in Modal Gain Equalization.

Table 3
Parameter Values for Generalized Simulation Setup.
Component Name Parameter Name Parameter Value

Input Signal Mode Signal wavelength( s ) 1550 nm

Signal power( PSin ) −7 dBm/mode
Pump Pump wavelength( p) 980 nm
Generalized EDFA Setup Length (L) 5m
Metastable Lifetime 10 ms
Erbium ion density(Er3+) 1200 ppm

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Fig. 6. Variation of modal gain for four signal modes with respect to pump power LP01, LP21 and LP02 fixed (a); Variation of |DMG| with respect to
LP01 pump power (b).

3.2. Simulative Verification of MEDP System

We investigate the appropriate erbium doped profile with fundamental LP01 pump mode required for equalization of modal gain
of various signal modes. This system was translated from second extracted radial overlap factor MEDP given by Eq. (5). In Fig. 7(a) the
variation in modal gain for four modes with normalized depth was depicted. The signal modes LP11 and LP02 are not sensitive to
variation in depth as the shapes of these modes do not get affected by changes in depth. The modal gain of LP01 signal mode decreases
with the increase in depth. This is because as the depth increases, mismatch occurs between the shape of LP01 signal mode and erbium
ion concentration profile thus decreasing the gain. The modal gain of LP21 signal mode increases with the increase in depth because of
increase in the overlap between shape of LP21 signal mode and Erbium Ion Concentration profile.
In Fig. 7(b), the value of |DMG| is plotted with respect to normalized depth. A minimum of 1.1996 dB is obtained between the
four modes at depth of 0.9. At the value of depth equal to 0.8 the | DMG| between the modes is 1.3254 dB. This had also been
observed in Section 2.2 where we found minimum variation in calculated radial overlap factors around depth of 0.8. Here we observe
that at the value of depth equal to 0.9 although DMG is minimum but gain is equalized in non degenerate modes thus this cannot be
exploited to our advantage. Hence although |DMG| obtained for the value of depth equal to 0.8 is higher, but the gain is completely
equalized between degenerate modes LP11 and LP21. This has an additional advantage as it will allow us to exploit the degeneracy of
these modes when used in Space Division Multiplexing. Thus the simulation results further confirm our analysis done in Section 2.2
where by mathematical calculations we had obtained an optimum erbium doped profile with depth of 0.8.

3.3. Comparison of MSPC and MEDP system for 4M-EDFA

In this section we compare the performance of gain equalization in 4M-EDFA obtained from MSPC system and from MEDP system.
Fig. 8(a) and Fig. 8(b) shows the variation of ASE power with respect to length for both systems. In Fig. 8(a), ASE power increases
with increase in length, reaches a maximum value and after that it gets reduced. As length increases, population inversion increases
thus ASE power initially increases but after a particular value of length, the population of ions in active medium is exhausted and ASE
power is also reduced. In the pump tuning method we had used LP01, LP02 and LP21 pump combination, thus this combination
equalizes the ASE power of LP01, LP02 and LP21 signal modes. The ASE power of LP11 mode remains lowest as it is not supported by

Fig. 7. Modal Gain with respect to Normalized Depth (a); DMG with respect to Normalized Depth (b).

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Fig. 8. Variation of ASE power with respect to length for MSPC system (a); Variation of ASE power with respect to length MEDP system (b).

the pump combination used. At 5 m, the maximum ASE power equal to 9.1593 × 10−4 W is obtained in LP21 signal mode and
minimum ASE power equal to 6.4536 × 10−4 W is obtained in LP11 signal mode with ASE ratio obtained to be equal to 1.42. The
ratio of Noise Figure between the two modes will be given by

N. F21 P
= ASE21 = 1.42
N. F11 PASE11 (11)

This shows that for pump tuned arrangement the Noise Figure in absolute units of LP21 mode will be 1.42 times that of LP11 mode
which corresponds to 1.5 dB variation in dBs. Thus equalizing gain between two modes will reduce the noise figure variation to about
1.5 dB. It can also be observed from Fig. 8(a) that smaller values of length around 3 m are not appropriate as for all modes, Noise
Figure will be highest around this value of length. In Fig. 8(b) variation of ASE power with length was depicted for MEDP system. It is
observed that ASE power increases with increase in length and saturates at higher values of length. The values of ASE power obtained
here are much smaller than in previous system. This is because the ions are non-uniformly distributed in the core of EDFA, thus ASE
being a random phenomenon is reduced for all modes. At 5 m, the maximum value of ASE power obtained in LP02 was given as
4.5899 × 10−4 W and a minimum value of ASE power equal to 3.10049 × 10−4 W was obtained in LP21 mode. This is because the
optimized multi-well ion distribution shape matches most with LP02 mode, hence this results in increase in ASE power in this mode.
The ASE power of LP21 mode is least among all modes because of least overlap with ion distribution. The ratio of Noise Figure
between two modes will be given by

N. F02 P
= ASE02 = 1.4803
N. F21 PASE21 (12)

This shows that for this system, the Noise Figure in absolute units of LP02 mode will be 1.4803 times that of LP21 mode which
corresponds to 1.7 dB variation in dBs. Thus equalizing gain between two modes will reduce the noise figure variation to about 1.7 dB
by modified erbium doped profile method. We conclude that although the Noise Figure N.F values for all modes will be higher in
MSPC system but the maximum deviation in N.F is slightly lower in MSPC system than in MEDP system by a value of 0.2 dB. As far as
equalization of N.F is concerned, MEDP system will be more suitable as it will result in both smaller as well as equalized N.F thus
improving our system for Space Division Multiplexing. In Fig. 9(a), the value of |DMG| is plotted with respect to length for both
techniques. For MSPC system, it is observed that |DMG| is insensitive to length and remains approximately at 1.5 dB with variation of
0.19911 dB for all range of lengths involved. In this system, gain of LP11 signal mode is lowest among all modes. This is because the
pump combination does not support the gain of LP11 signal mode. The gain for all four signal modes is moderately sensitive to length.

Fig. 9. Variation of |DMG| with respect to length (a); Variation of |DMG| with respect to concentration (b); Variation of |DMG| with respect to Input
Signal Power for MSPC and MEDP system (c).

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Fig. 10. Gain Spectrum for various signal modes for MSPC system (a); Gain Spectrum for various signal modes for MEDP system (b); Variation in
|DMG| with respect to Wavelength for MSPC and MEDP (c).

It increases with length, reaches a maximum value and then decreases with length. The increase in gain of some modes compensates
the decrease in gain of other modes resulting in small variation in |DMG|.
In case of MEDP system, it is observed that |DMG| is more sensitive to length of EDFA with maximum deviation obtained as
0.8604 dB, as compared to previous system. This is because the modification of Erbium Doped Profile in EDFA results in the changes
in active medium which directly affect the length of fiber that is needed for amplification. Fig. 9(b) shows the variation of |DMG| for
various values of concentration for both systems. For a range of concentration from 500 ppm to 3000 ppm, the maximum deviation in
DMG that can occur in pump tuned method is 0.4 dB. The gain of LP11 signal mode will be lowest among all modes. While rest of the
modes have similar and higher gain. This is because the pump tuned combination results in equalization of gain in LP01, LP21 and
LP02 signal mode. For a range of concentration from 500 ppm to 3000 ppm, the maximum deviation in DMG that can occur in
modification of ion concentration method is 1.874 dB. As the concentration is modified, gain is distributed among the four modes.
The LP21 signal mode will achieve lowest gain at 8 m and LP02 signal mode will achieve highest gain. This is because the optimized
erbium doped profile has least overlap with LP21 signal mode. Fig. 9(c) shows the variation in |DMG| with respect to input signal
power in dBm. The value of |DMG| obtained in MSPC system is 0.4923 dB and that obtained in MEDP system is 0.872 dB. In
Fig. 10(a), gain spectrum for four modes was plotted for MSPC system, with gain of LP11 signal mode being lowest with value of
27.611 dB at 1560 nm. It is observed that gain is less sensitive to wavelength with almost flat gain obtained in range of 30 nm from
1530 nm to 1560 nm. Fig. 10(b) shows the same variation in gain for four signal modes for MEDP system. Although the variation in
gain here is within 3 dB but the ripple obtained here is higher than the previous system.
The modification of erbium doped profile will affect the cross section that results in amplification of input signal at 1550 nm. Thus
the gain spectrum will get distorted. The variation of DMG in dB for same range of wavelengths for both systems was shown in
Fig. 10(c). In case of MSPC system, the |DMG| obtained is 0.4936 dB. The |DMG| variation for MEDP system is about 1.46804 dB. This
is because the amplification of input signal power of various modes will be affected differently with changes in erbium doped profile,
thus resulting in larger deviation in |DMG| between the signal modes.
The values obtained from comparative investigations are summarized in Table 4.

3.4. Communication performance of our Decoupled 4M-EDFA systems

In this section the Bit Error Rates (BER) of receiver are evaluated for decoupled 4M-EDFA systems. The system setup for in-
vestigations is shown in Fig. 11.
The complete setup for evaluating the performance of 4M-EDFA systems as a preamplifier is shown in Fig. 11. The transmitter
consists of multimode signal operating at wavelength 1550 nm. The signal supply is externally modulated using Mach-Zehnder
modulator with extinction ratio of 10 dB. Modulation is done using the non-return-to-zero (NRZ) pseudo random binary sequence at
bit rate of 10 Gb/s. After modal demultiplexing, PIN diode is used for detection of signal modes for individual modes followed by low-
pass Bessel filter and regenerators. In Fig. 12(a) variation of mean BER for all systems is plotted with respect to data rate at fixed
signal power of -7 dBm per mode. We choose mean BER as the performance parameter in MSPC, MEDP and simple 4M-EDFA systems,
this is because the individual modes did not show much variation in BER rates. Our results are further supported by [26] in which
they had concluded that receiver performance is independent of modal distribution of signal. This is because modal signal-

Table 4
Performance Comparison of MSPC and MEDP system for 4 M-EDFA.
Performance Parameter 4 M-EDFA Parameter MSPC System MEDP System

ASE Ratio Length (3−8 m) 1.42 1.4803

|MAX DMG| Deviation (dB) Length (3−8 m) 0.19911 dB 0.8604 dB
Concentration (500−3000 ppm) 0.4 dB 1.874 dB
Wavelength (1520−1560 nm) 0.4936 dB 1.46804 dB
Input Signal Power (-30 – 10 dB m) 0.4923 dB 0.872 dB

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T. Qayoom and G. Qazi Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 208 (2020) 164498

Fig. 11. Simulation setup for Decoupled 4M-EDFA Systems in Preamplifier application.

Fig. 12. Variation of average BER for 4M-EDFA systems with respect to bit rate (a); Variation of average BER for 4M-EDFA systems with respect to
received signal power (b).

spontaneous beat noise is proportional to optical signal power. The total signal-spontaneous beat noise is obtained by summation
over all modes and the result is independent of modal distribution in signal. This analysis is under assumption that all modes
experience same gain and there are no significant modal noise sources in amplifier. It is interesting to observe that our designed
MSPC, MEDP and simple 4M-EDFA systems showed identical trend with respect to data rates. Thus decoupled 4M-EDFA systems
though will decrease DMG but will not have any effect on BERperformance.
For all systems, with the increase in data rate BER increases and beyond 15 Gb/s the mean BER increases above 10−9. Thus our
designed MEDP and MSPC system as well as simple 4M-EDFA system will give good pre-amplification performance for each saptial
channel for data rates upto15 Gb/s. In Fig. 12(b), variation of mean BER for all decoupled systems is plotted with respect to received
signal power at fixed data rate of about 10 Gb/s. Fig. 12(b) shows that mean BER performance is highly dependent on received signal
power, and lower values of received powers lead to degradation of BER due to ASE build up. At lower received signal powers, MSPC
system showed slightly better performance with lower BER as compared to other systems.

4. Conclusion and Future Scope

Our work explored the systems for improvement in performance of FM-EDFA. In this context gain equalization between the modes
was identified as the main issue that needed to be resolved. Two separate systems were identified from extraction of overlap factors
by extension of Giles model. We mathematically analyzed and obtained an appropriate Mode Specific pump combination (MSPC) of
LP01, LP02 and LP21 pump modes that will result in modal gain equalization. We further separately analyzed another system namely
Modified Erbium Doped Profile system (MEDP) and obtained an optimum Multi-Well Erbium profile from mathematical calculations.
We verified our analysis with simulations. For MSPC system, an appropriate pump power combination resulted in reduction of |DMG|
to about 1.551 dB, while for MEDP system, modification of erbium doped profile resulted in reduction of | DMG| to about 1.3254 dB.
Thus in terms of reduction of DMG, MEDP system was most effective. We further explored the performance comparison between the
two systems. There was more deviation in |DMG| with length, concentration, wavelength in case of MEDP system than in MSPC
system. Thus MEDP system was more sensitive to variation in these parameters. As far as evolution of ASE was concerned, the ASE
levels reached in MEDP system are smaller than in MSPC system. Thus noise figure values of Four modes in MEDP were reduced to

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T. Qayoom and G. Qazi Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 208 (2020) 164498

large extent. It can be concluded that MEDP system gave good performance in terms of reduction of DMG and ASE levels with the
drawback of increased sensitivity to wavelength, erbium ion concentration and length. The 4M-EDFA designed by MSPC system is
more adaptive to variation in intrinsic EDFA parameters thus making it suitable for both WDM and SDM applications with ease in
fabrication. Although we were able to achieve more reduction in DMG in MEDP system, but 4M-EDFA obtained by MEDP system is
suitable in low power environment with ease in pumping requirements but at the cost of fabrication. Our designed systems predicted
that receiver performance is independent of modal distribution of signal in EDFA. Each spatial channel in the designed MEDP and
MSPC system as well as simple 4M-EDFA system will give good pre-amplification performance for data rates upto 15 Gb/s.
So far we had explored the improvement in performance of 4M-EDFA. The future work can be the improvement of performance of
EDFA with higher order modes. The next step can be to investigate the modification of Refractive Index Profile in FM-EDFA for
dispersion compensation in long-haul optical Fiber communication link.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

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