Abstract

Establishing lasing action at a designated wavelength in an Er³⁺ doped fibre amplifier has been shown to provide effective optical automatic gain control^[1][2][3][4] (OAGC) with significant operational advantages for amplifiers destined for a variety of network applications. In WDM networks, low frequency cross-talk and instability due to pump power variation are eliminated and gain equalisation can be achieved using passive optical filters. In saturated, single channel optical links, gain control provides invaluable protection against the optical surges that can occur following an interruption in transmission.

© 1996 Optical Society of America