MODULE V

OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS
The optical fiber amplifier was invented by H. J. Shaw and Michel Digonnet at
Stanford University, California (1980s).

An optical amplifier operates

solely in the optical domain,
that is, it takes in a weak optical
signal from one segment of the
link, amplifies it optically to
produce a strong optical signal,
and couples it to the next
segment of the link.
 Traditional Optical Communication System

Loss compensation: Repeaters at every 20-50 km

 Electronic repeaters or regenerators

photon to electron
electrical amplification
Retiming, reshaping
electron to photon

BANDWIDTH REDUCED !
 Advantages of optical amplifiers

• (i) they are insensitive to data rate or signal format

• (ii) they have large gain bandwidths
• Hence a single optical amplifier can simultaneously amplify many wavelength-
division multiplexed (WDM) signals propagating through the same fiber.
 OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS

Operating in optical domain

Three basic types
In-line amplifiers
Preamplifiers
Power amplifiers
 Preamplifier
An optical preamplifier is placed immediately before a receiver to improve its
sensitivity.

Since the input signal level is usually very low a low noise characteristic is
essential.

However, only a moderate gain figure is needed since the signal is being fed
directly into a receiver.

Typically a preamplifier will not have feedback control as it can be run well below
saturation.
 Selecting Amplifiers

Maximum Output
Type Gain Noise figure
power

Power Amplifier High gain High output power Not very important

In-line Medium gain Medium output power Good noise figure

Low value < 5 dB

Preamplifier Low gain Low output power
essential
Optical amplifiers can be used in any of the following ways
(a) in-line amplifiers to compensate for loss.
(b) power amplifiers to follow the transmitter.
(c) pre-amplifiers to precede the receiver.
 Two Types of Optical Amplifiers

(i) semiconductor optical amplifiers, which utilize stimulated emission from

injected carriers, and

(ii) fiber amplifiers, in which the gain is provided by either rare-earth dopants or
stimulated Raman scattering.
 Semiconductor optical laser amplifier
A semiconductor laser structure can be used as an amplifier that amplifies light
waves passing through its active region.
Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) is an optical amplifier based on a
semiconductor gain medium used to amplify optical signals.
The wavelength of radiation to be amplified must fall within the optical gain
bandwidth of the laser.
It is an optical amplifier with input
and output ports for light entry and
exit.
 Semiconductor optical laser amplifier types
Two types of semiconductor laser amplifier
i. Travelling Wave Amplifier
ii. Fabry Perot Amplifier
 Fabry Perot laser amplifier

It is similar to the conventional laser oscillator but is operated below the

threshold current for lasing operations.

The active region has an optical gain but not sufficient to sustain a self lasing
output.
Light passing through such an active region will be amplified by stimulated
emissions but, because of the presence of an optical resonator, there will be
internal multiple reflections.
These multiple reflections lead to the
gain being highest at the resonant
frequencies of the cavity within the
optical bandwidth.
 Fabry Perot laser amplifier

When the light enters FPA it gets amplified as it reflects back and forth between
the mirrors until emitted at a higher intensity (so higher probability of
spontaneous emission => more noise.

It is sensitive to temperature and input

optical frequency.
 Travelling Wave Semiconductor laser amplifier

In Travelling Wave semiconductor laser Amplifier the ends of the optical cavity
have AR coatings so that the optical cavity does not act as an optical resonator

Light from an optical fiber is coupled into the active region of the laser structure.
As the radiation propagates through the active layer, it becomes amplified by
the induced stimulated emission, and leaves optical cavity with high intensity.

The device must be pumped to achieve

optical gain (population inversion) in
the active layer.
 Travelling Wave Semiconductor laser amplifier

It is the same as Fabry Perot Amplifier except that the end facets are either
antireflection coated or cleaved at an angle so that internal reflection does not
take place and the input signal gets amplified only once during a single pass
through the device (i.e. less spontaneous emission so the signal
is smoother.

They are widely used because they have a large

optical bandwidth, and low polarization
sensitivity.
The drawback of SOAs is their sensitivity to interchannel crosstalk for
channel spacing less than 10 GHz.
 EDFA

Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier

 Optically Amplified Systems

EDFA = Erbium Doped fiber Amplifier

 Operation of an EDFA
Power level

Power level
Power
interchange
between
pump and
980 nm 1550 nm data data signals 980 nm 1550 nm data
signal signal signal signal

Isolator Isolator
Input Output
WDM
Erbium Doped
fiber

= Fusion Splice Pump Source

 EDFA
An optical fiber of suitable length (about 10–30 m) that has been doped with a
rare earth element such as erbium (Er), holmium (Ho), neodymium (Nd),
samarium (Sm), or ytterbium (Yb) can also serve as an amplifier.
Erbium ions are doped in silica glass to form EDFAs and they
operate in the low-attenuation window around 1.55 μm.
The signal wave from one segment of the optical fiber link, at a wavelength λs,
is coupled to a short length of an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) along with the
pump wave, usually from a diode laser, at a wavelength λp.
 EDFA
Pump photons excite Er3+ ions and produce population inversion. The passage
of the signal wave through the EDF triggers stimulated emission around λs and
in this process gets amplified.
The amplified signal is then coupled into the next segment of the communication
link.
 Interior of an Erbium Doped fiber Amplfier
(EDFA)

Pump laser
WDM fiber coupler

Erbium doped fiber

loop

fiber
input/output
Source: Master 7_5
Physics of an EDFA
 Operating Principle of EDFA
An EDFA uses the process of optical
pumping and it requires at least three
energy levels (the ground, metastable,
and pump levels).

The energy of the pumping photon,

which corresponds to the difference
between the ground and pump levels, is
absorbed and the system is raised to the
higher excited state (pump level).
 Operating Principle of EDFA
After reaching there, the electron rapidly loses
part of its energy non-radiatively and falls to
the metastable level (also known as the lasing
level).
If the pump power is high, the population in
the lasing level may exceed that in the ground
level. This is called population inversion.

Under such a condition, if a signal photon

(corresponding to the wavelength of light being
transmitted through the optical fiber link,
which is 1.55 mm in the present case) passes
through this medium, it can trigger a stimulated
emission from the lasing level to the ground
level, thus producing a new photon that is
identical to the signal photon.
 Operating Principle of EDFA
Therefore, this process requires the energy of
the pumping photon to be greater than that of
the signal photon. In other words, the pump
wavelength should be shorter than the signal
wavelength.

An optically intense source of pumping laser

emitting 0.98 mm can be used to excite Er3+
ions from the ground band.

The excited ions decay non-radiatively in about

1 microseconds from the pump band to the
metastable band [as shown by transition (b) in
Fig. 10.4]. Within this band, the electrons of the
excited ions tend to populate the lower end of
the band.
Basic block diagram of EDFA
 Block diagram of EDFA

• Copropogating Pump EDFA

 Block diagram of EDFA

• Counterpropogating Pump EDFA

 Characteristics of EDFA

• Gain and Noise

Characteristics of EDFA (Contd….)
 Amplified Spontaneous Emission

• Erbium randomly emits photons between 1520 and 1570 nm

– Spontaneous emission (SE) is not polarized or coherent
– Like any photon, SE stimulates emission of other photons
– With no input signal, eventually all optical energy is consumed into amplified
spontaneous emission
– Input signal(s) consume metastable electrons  much less ASE
Random spontaneous
emission (SE)
Amplified
Amplification along fiber spontaneous
emission (ASE)
Characteristics of EDFA (Contd….)
 Advantages

• Commercially available in C-band & L-band

• Insensitivity to light polarization state
• High gain
• Low noise figure: 4.5 dB to 6dB
• No distortion at high bit rates
• Simultaneous amplification of wavelength division multiplexed signals
• Immunity to cross talk among wavelength multiplexed channels
 Drawbacks

• Pump laser necessary

• Need to use a gain equalizer for multistage amplification
• Difficult to integrate with other components
• Dropping channels can give rise to errors in surviving channels
 Fiber Raman Amplifiers

A fiber Raman amplifier (FRA) is based on stimulated Raman scattering.

Herein, the pump energy at λp is transferred to the signal energy at λs in
a non-resonant process to provide gain at λs.
 Fiber Raman Amplifiers
Raman effect
 Fiber Raman Amplifiers
When giant pulses of short duration and high peak power are incident on silica
glass, non-linear phenomena are observed. One such process is stimulated Raman
scattering (SRS).

Herein, the incident light wave of frequency ѵ induces a gain in the scattering
medium (e.g., silica) at another frequency ѵ’ = ѵ – ѵr , where ѵr is the frequency of
some Raman-active vibration.
If the incident power is above the threshold value, the gain can exceed losses and
the scattered beam with frequency ѵ’ gets amplified.
Unlike the normal Raman effect, this stimulated emission is coherent. This
phenomenon of SRS has been used in making a fiber Raman amplifier.
 Fiber Raman Amplifiers

Both the pump beam at a frequency ѵp and the input signal beam at frequency ѵs
are injected into a specific optical fiber serving as an optical amplifier, through an
optical coupler.
The pump wavelength λp (= c/ѵp) is converted into a signal wavelength λs (= c/ѵs) by
SRS, thereby increasing the power at λs .
 Fiber Raman Amplifiers
If a suitable optical fiber is optically pumped by an appropriate source, the signal
beam will get amplified as the two beams co-propagate along the fiber.

Since SRS is not a resonant phenomenon, it does not require population inversion.

For fiber Raman amplifiers used either in the forward or backward configuration,
gains exceeding 20 dB have been achieved experimentally in a silica fiber, which in
principle exhibits a broad spectral bandwidth of up to 50 nm with suitable doping.

The main drawback with the FRA is that require very high pump powers and long
lengths (of the order of kilometres) of optical fibers.