Doped fiber amplifier (The typical representative: EDFA)

Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is the most widely used fiber-optic amplifiers, mainly
made of Erbium-doped fiber (EDF), pump light source, optical couplers, optical isolators,
optical filters and other components. Among them, a trace impurity in the form of a trivalent
erbium ion is inserted into the optical fiber’s silica core to alter its optical properties and
permit signal amplification.

Working Principle

The working principle of the EDFA is to use the pump light sources, which most often has a
wavelength around 980 nm and sometimes around 1450 nm, excites the erbium ions (Er3+)
into the 4I13/2 state (in the case of 980-nm pumping via 4I11/2), from where they can
amplify light in the 1.5-μm wavelength region via stimulated emission back to the ground-
state manifold 4I15/2.

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Advantages & Disadvantages of EDFA
Advantages

 EDFA has high pump power utilization (>50%)

 Directly and simultaneously amplify a wide wavelength band (>80nm) in the 1550nm
region, with a relatively flat gain
 Flatness can be improved by gain-flattening optical filters
 Gain in excess of 50 dB
 Low noise figure suitable for long haul applications

Disadvantages

 Size of EDFA is not small

 It can not be integrated with other semiconductor deviecs

Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)

Semiconductor optical amplifier is one type of optical amplifier which use a semiconductor
to provide the gain medium. They have a similar structure to Fabry–Perot laser diodes but
with anti-reflection design elements at the end faces. Unlike other optical amplifiers SOAs
are pumped electronically (i.e. directly via an applied current), and a separate pump laser is
not required.

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Working Principle

1.Stimulated emission to amplify an optical signal.

2.Active region of the semiconductor.
3.Injection current to pump electrons at the conduction band.
4.The input signal stimulates the transition of electrons down to the valence band to acquire
an amplification.

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Advantages & Disadvantages of SOA
Advantages

 The semiconductor optical amplifier is of small size and electrically pumped.

 It can be potentially less expensive than the EDFA and can be integrated with
semiconductor lasers, modulators, etc.
 All four types of nonlinear operations (cross gain modulation, cross phase
modulation, wavelength conversion and four wave mixing) can beconducted.
 SOA can be run with a low power laser. This originates from the short nanosecond or
less upper state lifetime, so that the gain reacts rapidly tochanges of pump or signal
power and the changes of gain also cause phase changes which can distort the
signals.

Disadvantages
The performance of SOA is still not comparable with the EDFA. The SOA has higher noise,
lower gain, moderate polarization dependence and high nonlinearity with fast transient
time.

Fiber Raman amplifier (FRA)

Fiber Raman Amplifier (FRA) is also a relatively mature optical amplifier. In a FRA, the optical
signal is amplified due to stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). In general, FRA can is divided
into lumped type called LRA and distributed type called DRA. The fiber gain media of the
former is generally within 10 km. In addition, it requires on higher pump power, generally in
a few to a dozen watts that can produce 40 dB or even over gains. It is mainly used to
amplify the optical signal band of which EDFA cannot satisfy. The fiber gain media of DRA is
usually longer than LRA, generally for dozens of kilometers while pump source power is

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down to hundreds of megawatts. It is mainly used in DWDM communication system,
auxiliarying EDFA to improve the performance of the system, inhibiting nonlinear effect,
reducing the incidence of signal power, improving the signal to noise ratio and amplifing
online.

Working Principle

The principle of FRA is based on the Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) effect. The gain
medium is undoped optical fiber. Power is transferred to the optical signal by a nonlinear
optical process known as the Raman effect. An incident photon excites an electron to the
virtual state and the stimulated emission occurs when the electron de-excites down to the
vibrational state of glass molecule. The Stokes shift corresponding to the eigen-energy of a
phonon is approximately 13.2 THz for all optical fibers.

Advantages & Disadvantages of FRA

Advantages

 Variable wavelength amplification possible

 Compatible with installed SM fiber
 Can be used to extend EDFAs
 Can result in a lower average power over a span, good for lower crosstalk
 Very broadband operation may be possible

Disadvantages

 High pump power requirements, high pump power lasers have only recently arrived
 Sophisticated gain control needed
 Noise is also an issue

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What’s EDFA Amplifier?

EDFA (Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifier), firstly invented in 1987 for commercial use, is the
most deployed optical amplifier in the DWDM system that uses the Erbium-doped fiber as
optical amplification medium to directly enhance the signals. It enables instantaneous
amplification for signals with multiple wavelengths, basically within two bands. One is the
Conventional, or C-band, approximately from 1525 nm to 1565 nm, and the other is the
Long, or L-band, approximately from 1570 nm to 1610 nm. Meanwhile, it has two commonly
used pumping bands, 980 nm and 1480 nm. The 980nm band has a higher absorption
cross-section usually used in low-noise application, while 1480nm band has a lower but
broader absorption cross-section that is generally used for higher power amplifiers.

The following figure detailedly illustrates how the EDFA amplifier enhance the signals. When
the EDFA amplifier works, it offers a pump laser with 980 nm or 1480 nm. Once the pump
laser and the input signals pass through the coupler, they will be multiplexed over the
Erbium-doped fiber. Through the interaction with the doping ions, the signal amplification
can be finally achieved. This all-optical amplifier not only greatly lowers the cost but highly
improves the efficiency for optical signal amplification. In short, the EDFA amplifier is a
milestone in the history of fiber optics that can directly amplify signals with multiple
wavelengths over one fiber, instead of optical-electrical-optical signal amplification.

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What’s Raman Amplifier?

As the limitations of EDFA amplifier working band and bandwidth became more and more
obvious, Raman amplifier was put forward as an advanced optical amplifier that enhances
the signals by stimulated Raman scattering. To meet the future-proof network needs, it can
provide gain at any wavelength. At present, two kinds of Raman amplifiers are available on
the market. One is lumped Raman amplifier that always uses the DCF (dispersion
compensation fiber) or high nonlinear fiber as gain medium. Its gain fiber is relatively short,
generally within 10 km. The other one is distributed Raman amplifier. Its gain medium is
common fiber, which is much longer, generally dozens of kilometers.

When the Raman amplifier is working, the pump laser may be coupled into the transmission
fiber in the same direction as the signal (co-directional pumping), in the opposite direction
(contra-directional pumping) or in both directions. Then the signals and pump laser will be
nonlinearly interacted within the optical fiber for signal amplification. In general, the contra-
directional pumping is more common as the transfer of noise from the pump to the signal is
reduced, as shown in the following figure.

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EDFA vs Raman Optical Amplifier: Which One Wins?

After knowing the basic information of EDFA and Raman optical amplifiers, you must
consider that the Raman amplifier performs better for two main reasons. Firstly, it has a
wide band, while the band of EDFA is only from 1525 nm to 1565 nm and 1570 nm to 1610
nm. Secondly, it enables distributed amplification within the transmission fiber. As the
transmission fiber is used as gain medium in the Raman amplifier, it can increase the length
of spans between the amplifiers and regeneration sites. Except for the two advantages
mentioned above, Raman amplifier can be also used to extend EDFA.

However, if the Raman amplifier is a better option, why there are still so many users
choosing the EDFA amplifiers? Compared with Raman amplifier, EDFA amplifier also
features many advantages, such as, low cost, high pump power utilization, high energy
conversion efficiency, good gain stability and high gain with little cross-talk. Here offers a
table that shows the differences between EDFA and Raman optical amplifiers for your
reference.

Property EDFA Amplifier Raman Amplifier

Wavelength (nm) 1525-1565, 1570-1610 All Wavelengths

Gain (dB) > 40 > 25

Noise Figure (dB) 5 5

Pump Power (dBm) 25 > 30

Cost Factor Relatively Low Relatively High

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