Abstract

Saturated erbium-doped-fiber amplifiers (EDFA’s) are expected to replace optoelectronic repeaters in future long-haul transmission systems. Such in-line amplifiers will, at least in early systems, be pumped at around 1480 nm because of the availability of reliable pump diodes. These EDFA’s will be operated in saturation, both to obtain adequate output power and to assure system robustness. Since 1480-nm diodes are characterized by wide emission spectra (>10 nm), device-to-device variation in center wavelength, and spectral shifts with aging, it is important to determine the effect of pump wavelength on the performance of saturated EDFA’s.

© 1993 Optical Society of America