Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA)

• By far the most common type

• First developed (late 80s)
• Advantages
• Relatively low cost
• Efficient
• Low noise
• Part of broader class of amplifiers sometimes referred to as Rare Earth Doped Fiber Amplifiers
(REDFAs)
• Currently only erbium (Er) and praseodymium (Pr) used
• In principle any rare earth could be used
Basic structure of EDFAs
• Utilize principle of laser
• Signal never leaves fiber, never converted to electronic form
• Gain of 1000 or 30 db
• 10 m of fiber doped with Er3+ ions

Source: Dutton
 Energy Level Diagram of EDFAs

Excited
State
F as
tD Metastable
e ca
y State
0.98-m pump

0
1.48-m pump

0 0
2 0
4 0
3 Incoming 0
Signal Output Gain Photons
1 Photon plus Signal Photon
Ground Spontaneous Emission Gain
State Noise
(1.53 << 1.56 m)

USC
Optical
Communications
Laboratory
Principle of operation
• Erbium ions can exist in several energy states
• Stark Splitting , Thermalization process
• In high energy state, photon can stimulate it to move to lower state and emit
a photon (stimulated emission)
• Idea is to keep pumping Er ions so that chain reaction of photon
emission occurs
• Done by means of “pump laser”
• High powered laser diode 10-200 mw
• 980 nm /1480 nm
Details of operation
• High powered beam of laser light mixed with input signal (excitation
light)
• Excitation, input signal must be at significantly different wavelengths
• Guided into section of fiber with erbium doping
• Excitation light excites erbium atoms to move to high energy state
• Incoming signal stimulate erbium atoms to drop to lower state and
emit photon
• Only a small range of wavelengths can stimulate
• 24 nm wide band
Details of operation (continued)
• Erbium atoms emit photons at same wavelength and in same phase
and direction as incoming photons
• Cascading photons effectively amplify incoming signal
• One incoming photon can lead to 1000 outgoing photons
• Signal amplified in direction of travel only
• Similar to laser action
• Isolator put at output to prevent reflections from returning to
amplifier and disrupting operation
Requirements for EDFA to work
• Need population inversion, as with laser
• Light for pumping ~ 980 nm
• Light for stimulated emission in range 1525-1570 nm
• Light at other wavelengths just passes through with no effect
Pump Source

• 980 nm
• low ASE, low noise amplifier
• 1480 nm
• higher power pump laser
• high output power
• not as efficient
• degree of population inversion is lower
EDFA characteristics
• Gain in db (output power/input power)

• Gain coefficient (signal gain/pump power)

• Bandwidth - range over which amplifier works

• Gain saturation - input level at which no further gain is available

• Polarization sensitivity - change in gain when signal polarization changes 90 o, typically low, ~0.01 to 0.1 db

• Noise - specified as “noise figure”, signal-to-noise ratio at output / signal-to-noise ratio at input
Gain curve for typical EDFA

Source: Dutton
Cascading of EDFAs
• Simple cascading can lead to problems

Source: Dutton

• Necessary to take steps to mitigate such problems

• Operate at ~77o K = -196o C: usually not practical
• Use different dopants along fiber
• Control pump power with feedback loop
• Use special filters
Three applications of EDFAs

Source: Goff, Fiber Optic

Reference Guide
Semiconductor Optical/Laser Amplifiers
(SOAs/SLAs)
• Basic construction is same as FP laser, except that back facet (mirror) allows
light to enter, which is amplified by usual laser mechanism
• Main advantage: can be integrated with other devices on planar substrate
• Cannot be made long, so few passes through amplifier are possible (~450
microns)

Source: Dutton