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Optical Amplifiers: Progress, Challenges, and Future Prospects

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A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Communication and Network".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 14651

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Dr. Mingming Tan

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Guest Editor

Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK
Interests: optical communications; Raman amplification
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Feng Wen

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Guest Editor

Key Lab of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Ministry of Education, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
Interests: optical signal processing; photonic neural networks; satellite communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the increasing demand for high-speed internet, the technology enabling the high data capacity has become extremely important since the Covid-19 pandemic when we require more internet data usage than ever. Optical fiber communications have been the key technology which supports the high-speed transmission of information all over the world, and the optical amplifier is the backbone to enable a steady and rapid growth over the years. Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) has been commercially deployed for years and recently low noise distributed Raman amplifier starts to be used in unrepeatered transmission systems. To allow higher data capacity, the research on ultra-wide band amplification techniques, i.e., bismuth-doped amplifier, parametric amplifier, and discrete Raman amplifier, also attracts significant interests.

Our special issue aims for the collection of papers using novel optical amplifiers including doped-fiber amplifier, semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), Raman amplifier, parametric amplifier and so forth. Particularly, we encourage the submissions regarding the optimization and application of optical amplifiers in optical coherent communication systems. Both contributed articles and review papers are welcome in the special issue.

Dr. Mingming Tan
Dr. Feng Wen
Guest Editors

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Keywords

optical amplifier
coherent communications
nonlinearity compensation
Raman amplification

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 5599 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study on the In-Band Amplified Spontaneous Emission in the Single-Mode Continuous-Wave Yb-Doped Fiber Amplifier Operating near 980 nm

by Zhaode Li, Shangde Zhou, Aimin Liu, Jianqiu Cao, Zhihe Huang and Jinbao Chen

Photonics 2022, 9(6), 377; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9060377 - 26 May 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1660

Abstract

In this paper, the in-band amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in the Yb-doped continuous-wave (CW) fiber amplifier operating near 980 nm is experimentally studied for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. A core-pumped single-mode Yb-doped fiber amplifier is fabricated and the effects of pump power, seed power, and active fiber length on the in-band ASE are investigated in the experiment. It is found that a strong in-band ASE around 980 nm can be observed even with no obvious ASE around 1030 nm present. It is also found that with the increment of pump power, the in-band ASE can be enhanced faster than the signal light. By studying the effects of seed power and active fiber length, it is found that, although increasing the seed power and shortening the active fiber can both suppress the in-band ASE, the latter method is less effective than the former one. The theoretical study is also carried out in order to understand the difference between the in-band ASE and 1030-nm ASE. The experimental observations are also discussed qualitatively with the theoretical results. We believe that the pertinent results and discussions can provide significant guidance for understanding the in-band ASE in the Yb-doped fiber amplifier operating near 980 nm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Amplifiers: Progress, Challenges, and Future Prospects)

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15 pages, 7875 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Optical and Near-Infrared Luminescence of Er³⁺ and Er^3+/Yb³⁺ Co-Doped Heavy Metal Borate Glasses for Optical Amplifier Applications

by Vinod Hegde, G. Devarajulu, A. G. Pramod, Sangeeta B. Kolavekar, Dalal Abdullah Aloraini, Aljawhara H. Almuqrin, M. I. Sayyed and G. Jagannath

Photonics 2022, 9(5), 355; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9050355 - 18 May 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2105

Abstract

For the near-infrared emission, Er³⁺ and Er³⁺/Yb³⁺ co-activated borate based glass hosts were synthesized by the method of melting andquenching. The emission intensity was maximum for 0.5 mol% Er³⁺ singly activated glass in the near-infrared (NIR) region covering the telecommunication window. The 2 mol% of Yb³⁺ co-doping enhanced the emission gain cross-section of the glass by two times contrast to 0.5 mol% Er³⁺ loaded glass. This enhancement shifted to lower spectral regions when P increased from 0 to 1. The effect of Yb³⁺ loading on the gain cross-section of the Er³⁺ co-activated glasses was analyzed using the McCumber theory. The results showed that the 0.5Er2Yb glass has a flat gain in the range of 1460–1640 nm, this suggest a lower pump threshold is enough to perform the laser functioning of a 1530 nm band and optical window of telecommunication applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Amplifiers: Progress, Challenges, and Future Prospects)

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10 pages, 3666 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

A Multi-Layer Erbium-Doped Air-Hole-Assisted Few-Mode Fiber with Ultra-Low Differential Modal Gain

by Zhiqi Li, Li Pei, Jingjing Zheng, Jianshuai Wang, Wenxuan Xu, Tigang Ning and Jing Li

Photonics 2022, 9(5), 305; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9050305 - 29 Apr 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1731

Abstract

The air-hole assisted few-mode fiber (AH-FMF) enables modal intensity balance and offers a profound prospect in gain equalization with the combination of adaptive ion doping. In this paper, we proposed an AH-FM-EDF with a multi-layered erbium doping profile. In AH-FM-EDF, due to the central air hole, only the first radial order modes (LP₀₁, LP₁₁, LP₂₁, and LP₃₁) are supported, and all the modes are confined in the same high refractive index core region. The differential modal gain (DMG) is highly reduced by optimizing the erbium doping proportion in each layer. Compared with uniform doping, the DMG is reduced from 4 dB to 0.14 dB as triple-layer doping is deployed. Additionally, the proposed erbium-doped fiber performs well in gain flattening and fabrication tolerance over the whole C-band. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Amplifiers: Progress, Challenges, and Future Prospects)

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12 pages, 3715 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optical Phase Conjugation Conversion through a Nonlinear Bidirectional Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Configuration

by Fan Sun, Feng Wen, Baojian Wu, Yun Ling and Kun Qiu

Photonics 2022, 9(3), 164; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9030164 - 9 Mar 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1971

Abstract

The optical phase conjugation (OPC) process is thoughtfully investigated in a nonlinear bidirectional semiconductor optical amplifier subsystem (SOA), demonstrating the conjugation conversion through the two ports of the SOA, simultaneously. The spectral responses, the nonlinear power curves and the quality optimization of the conjugated are discussed through the simulation in nonlinear bidirectional configuration. The experimental investigation of the polarization-insensitive SOA further confirms the OPC behavior in the bidirectional operation, achieving the error-free conjugation conversion with an output optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of up to 16 dB. The nonlinear bidirectional SOA configuration tested in the system relaxes the requirement of the conventional four-wave mixing (FWM), enabling the OPC conversion with the signal regeneration in only one unit. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Amplifiers: Progress, Challenges, and Future Prospects)

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10 pages, 4756 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Machine Learning Assisted Inverse Design for Ultrafine, Dynamic and Arbitrary Gain Spectrum Shaping of Raman Amplification

by Yuting Huang, Jiangbing Du, Yufeng Chen, Ke Xu and Zuyuan He

Photonics 2021, 8(7), 260; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics8070260 - 6 Jul 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2536

Abstract

Distributed Raman amplifier (DRA) has been widely studied in recent decades because of its low noise figure and flexible gain. In this paper, we present a novel scheme of DRA with broadband amplified spontaneous emission(ASE) source as pump instead of discrete pump lasers. The broadband pump is optimized by machine learning based inverse design and shaped by programmable waveshaper, so as to realize the ultrafine, dynamic and arbitrary gain spectrum shaping of Raman amplification. For the target of flat gain spectrum, the maximum gain flatness of 0.1086 dB is realized based on the simulation results. For the target of arbitrary gain spectrum, we demonstrate four gain profiles with maximum root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.074 dB. To further measure the performance of arbitrary gain spectrum optimization, the probability density functions (PDF) of RMSE and

{Error}_{m a x}

are presented. Meanwhile, the numeral relationship between the bands of broadband pump and signal is also explored. Furthermore, this work has great application potential to compensate the gain distortion or dynamic change caused by other devices in communication systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Amplifiers: Progress, Challenges, and Future Prospects)

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10 pages, 2828 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Measurement of Absorption Coefficients for Effective Erbium-Doping Concentration to Optimize Few-Mode Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers with Low Differential Mode Gain

by Yan Xu, Baojian Wu, Xinrui Jiang, Haomiao Guo and Feng Wen

Photonics 2021, 8(6), 185; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics8060185 - 25 May 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2442

Abstract

According to the analytical expression for modal gain of few-mode erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (FM-EDFAs), we propose a method of measuring the absorption loss coefficients of few-mode signals in few-mode erbium-doped fibers (FM-EDFs) by extrapolating the mode–gain curve dependent on the average population inversion. The absorption loss coefficient of an FM-EDF was measured in our experimental platform and used to estimate the effective erbium-ion doping concentration. The feasibility of the extrapolation method was verified by simulation and comparison with the transmission method. Furthermore, the FM-EDFAs with high modal gain and low differential mode gain (DMG) could be optimized by adjusting the FM-EDF’s length and pump power. The analysis process presented here is very useful for the efficient design of FM-EDFAs from a practical point of view. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Amplifiers: Progress, Challenges, and Future Prospects)

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