Pencil Amplifier Mini Er Doped Fiber Amplifier

NP Photonics produces short-length (<10cm), low latency optical amplifiers with gain and noise figure performance comparable to standard EDFA devices. At the heart of this new amplifier technology is a specialized high gain per unit length glass and fiber. The active core elements are made from a phosphate glass host codoped with erbium and ytterbium. The proprietary phosphate glass composition improves the solubility to erbium and ytterbium ions thereby allowing order of magnitude higher dopant levels than is possible in conventional silica fibers. This enables high gain per unit fiber length in the C-band wavelength band, and makes possible the short length and low latency amplifier. The active fiber is integrated with micro-optic signal-pump couplers and spectral gain flatteners, and packaged into one self-contained amplifier device with fiber pigtails for input and output signals as well as fiber pigtails for optically pumping the doped fiber. The active fiber is energized by commercially available,fiber pigtailed, semiconductor pump diodes (also included). The NP Photonics Mini-EDFA comes in two types: one is the pre-amplifier Mini-EDFA which provides a spectrally flat gain of over 20 dB in the 1535nm-1565nm wavelength region; the other is the Mini-EDFA power amplifier which delivers more than 20 dBm output power in the 1535-1565nm wavelength region. Both devices have a short latency – equivalent to less than 20 ps relative to a 10cm length of standard single mode fiber. The development of this type of glass and optical fiber opens up new possibilities for extremely compact high performance optical amplifiers both for commercial and special applications where compact physical size and/or minimum signal latency are of paramount importance.