Abstract

The excellent performance of erbium-doped fibre amplifiers¹ (EDFA) has been confirmed by many recent experiments² and there is little doubt that EDFAs will soon be used in practical applications. Although an understanding of the amplifier temperature characteristics is indispensable in any application, surprisingly only one measurement has been reported to date. This measurement³ used the 0.6μm pump band and reported no significant temperature dependence of either the gain or the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectrum. However, when resonantly pumped at the more practical wavelength of 1.48μm, the situation is different. In this case, temperature-dependent gain characteristics are expected owing to a combination of the proximity of the pump and signal energies and the temperature-dependent distribution of ions within the metastable and the ground levels.

© 1990 Optical Society of America