Optics Communications 256 (2005) 352–357

www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom

A hybrid fiber amplifier with 36.9-dBm output power

and 70-dB gain
Z.G. Lu *, J.R. Liu, F.G. Sun, G.Z. Xiao, P. Lin
Photonic Systems, Institute for Microstructural Sciences, National Research Council, M-50, 1200 Montreal Road,
Rm 303, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0R6

Received 29 March 2005; received in revised form 31 May 2005; accepted 27 June 2005

Abstract

A high-power and extremely high-gain hybrid fiber amplifier with the good noise figure (NF) performance is devel-
oped and investigated. It comprises a two-stage erbium-doped fiber amplifier as a pre-amplifier and an erbium/ytter-
bium co-doped double-cladding fiber amplifier as a post-amplifier. At the signal wavelength of 1550 nm, the signal
gains of up to 70 dB and the maximum output power of 36.9 dBm or 4.90 W have been demonstrated when the total
pump power is 12.5 W. We have obtained that the NFs of the hybrid fiber amplifier is varying from 6.12 to 7.72 dB for
the 1550-nm signal wavelength with the input power range from
21 to +6 dBm.
Crown Copyright Ó 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PACS: 42.65.Yj; 42.81.
i; 42.81.Wg

Keywords: Hybrid fiber amplifier; High-power Er/Yb co-doped double-cladding fiber amplifier; Erbium-doped fiber amplifier; Tele-
communications

1. Introduction systems, range finding and medicine, spectroscopy

and high-precision interferometers [1]. Erbium-
High-power (>1 W) optical fiber amplifiers at doped silica fibers (EDFs) are the most widely
the eye-safe 1.55 lm wavelength range are attrac- used devices, because they have a transition in
tive for many potential applications in free-space the third telecommunication window, around
and satellite optical communications, CATV 1.55 lm; i.e., where the fiber attenuation is lowest.
They can be pumped either around 980 or
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +6139931268; fax:
1480 nm. However erbium-doped fiber amplifiers
+6139930755. (EDFAs) cannot be used as very high-power
E-mail address: zhenguo.lu@nrc.ca (Z.G. Lu). amplifiers because their saturated output power

0030-4018/$ - see front matter. Crown Copyright Ó 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2005.06.078
 Z.G. Lu et al. / Optics Communications 256 (2005) 352–357 353

is not high enough, which is about 26 dBm, even 2. Working principles and experimental set-up
when using double-cladding erbium-doped fiber
geometry [2]. So in this case, we need to look Fig. 1 shows the simplified energy level transi-
for other rare-earth-doped fiber materials to tions for Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped double-cladding fi-
achieve very high output-power (>26 dBm) fiber ber amplifiers (EYCDFAs). Yb3+ ions in silica
amplifiers. In the wavelength region around fiber have just one broadband laser transition,
1.55 lm, erbium/ytterbium co-doped double- pumped continuously between 800 and 1100 nm
cladding fiber amplifiers (EYCDFAs) are emerging as shown in Fig. 1. The absorption peak is at
as the best choice and have consequently, see a 975 nm. The Yb3+ ions absorb the pump power
rapid commercial development [3]. When com- and, due to cross relaxation between adjacent ions
pared with conventional EDFAs, EYCDFAs of Er3+ and Yb3+, the energy transfer efficiency
can offer significantly higher output powers at a from Yb3+ to Er3+ can be as high as 95% because
substantially lower cost because the Yb3+ ions of the large spectral overlap between Yb3+ emis-
absorb most of the pump power and cross corre- sion spectrum (2F5/2 ! 2F7/2) and Er3+ absorption
lation between adjacent Yb3+ and Er3+ ions en- spectrum (4I15/2 ! 4I11/2) [7]. This process allows
sures the energy transfer. The incorporation of having strong absorption of the pump, without
Yb3+ considerably increases the pump absorption signal absorption due to the Er3+ concentration,
and allows for higher Er3+ concentrations with- which helps to obtain very high-power amplifiers
out strong quenching effects [4], resulting in high- and lasers [8].
er gain for a given pump level and offers a wide The high efficiency of fiber amplifiers makes the
variety of pump wavelengths to utilize different amplification coefficient (for a weak input signal)
high-power sources in the range from 800 to and the output power (for a strong input signal)
1100 nm [5]. Moreover, double-cladding pumping almost proportional to the power of the pump ab-
method provides a simple and efficient means to sorbed in the fiber. Double-cladding fibers offer the
absorb multimode pump light [6]. However, few potential for power scaling fiber lasers and ampli-
published papers reported experimental data on fiers far less expensively than traditional single-
EYCDFAs in the wavelength region around mode fiber designs. A typical double-cladding fiber
1.55 lm with the output power of larger than has an inner core, through which an optical signal
33 dBm or 2 W. is transmitted, an inner cladding surrounding the
In this paper, we have designed and investigated core that has a lower refractive index than core,
a high-power, extremely high-gain hybrid fiber and an outer cladding surrounding the inner clad-
amplifier, which was built by a high-power EYCD- ding that has also a lower refractive index than the
FA as a post-amplifier, pumped by four multi-
mode un-cooled diode lasers at 975 ± 10 nm, and
a well-designed two-stage EDFA as a pre-ampli- 4
I 11/2 4
F 5/2
fier. The signal gain of 70 dB for this hybrid fiber
amplifier was demonstrated when the input power
was
36 dBm at the signal wavelength of 1550 nm.
4
This is the highest gain of the fiber amplifiers we I 13/2
980 nm 800 nm ~ 1100 nm
have seen in the published papers as our best
knowledge. When the total pump power was 1.5 µm

12.5 W and the input signal power at the wave-

length of 1550 nm was 6 dBm, the maximum out-
4 4
put power of 36.9 dBm was obtained. The I 15/2 F 7/2
pumping conversion efficiency of this hybrid fiber 3+ 3+
amplifier was about 39.2%. We have also investi- Er Yb
gated the noise figure (NF) characteristics of the Fig. 1. Energy level diagram for Yb3+ ! Er3+ energy transfer
high-power hybrid fiber amplifier. process.
354 Z.G. Lu et al. / Optics Communications 256 (2005) 352–357

inner cladding. The optical pumping energy need the facet of the V-groove. A micro-lens is usually
to be coupled directly into the core where it will used to focus the pump light onto the V-groove fa-
be absorbed for amplification purposes of signals. cet. This technique provides high coupling effi-
However, this energy may be coupled in the inner ciency, compact packaging, and unidirectional
cladding, and then it propagates in a multi-reflec- pumping; it is scalable (by cutting multiple V-
tive trajectory through the inner cladding until it grooves), leaves the fiber ends unobstructed, and
intersects the core. Once contacting the core, this introduces no loss for light propagating in the fiber
pump energy will be absorbed [9]. Direct core core. The pump coupling efficiency is highly sensi-
pumping through wavelength division multiplexer tive to the relative positions of the pump diodes,
(WDM) decreases pumping efficiency rate and in- micro-lens, and fiber. To avoid these problems,
creases the potential signal degradation caused we have used the optical single-mode fused fiber
by generation of nonlinearity effects in the fiber. tapered bundle pumping method in this paper.
With double-cladding (DC) fibers, two highly Fig. 2 shows the configuration of our high-
efficient cladding pump techniques have been de- power and extremely high-gain hybrid fiber
scribed: the fused fiber bundles [10], and the V- amplifier comprising a two-stage EDFA as the
groove side pumping [11] techniques. For the fused pre-amplifier part and an EYCDFA as the post-
fiber bundles, several multi-mode (MM) fibers are amplifier part. The preamplifier part was a two-
bundled together, fused and drawn into a taper, stage C-band EDFA. We used a 6-m Lucent
fusion spliced to a DC fiber, and then recoated R37103-L EDF as EDF1 in the first stage in order
with a low-index polymer. Pumping light is to achieve a low noise figure (NF) and high gain by
launched into the DC fiber from individual diode backward pumping. We also used a 26-m Lucent
lasers that are coupled to the MM fibers. Option- HP980 EDF as EDF2 in the second stage in order
ally, the fiber bundle can include a single-mode to achieve a high output power and very high gain
(SM) fiber that is used to couple signal light into by both forward and backward pumping. In addi-
or out of the core of the DC fiber. This method tion, placing optical isolator-2 (Is-2) between these
is stable and rugged and can have high coupling two stages made it possible to reduce backward
efficiency (ultimately limited by the efficiency of fi- amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and to im-
ber-coupling of the pump diodes). The approach prove the NF and gain performance. The maxi-
allows unidirectional pumping and is scalable. mum pump power from the 980-nm pump laser
The shape and size of the fiber bundle and of the 1 was 200 mW, which pump into a section of
SM pigtail must be matched to the DC fiber being EDF1 via the 980/1550 WDM1. The pump power
pumped. In V-groove side pumping method, the from the 980-nm pump laser 2, whose maximum
DC fiber is stripped and bonded to a glass slide. output power could reach 300 mW, was split into
A V-shaped notch is cut into the inner cladding two parts by means of 30/70 splitter, with each
(but does not intersect the core), and the pump part pumping into a section of EDF2 via the cor-
beam is launched by total internal reflection from responding 980/1550 WDM2 by forward pumping

Pre-amplifier 975-nm laser 1 975-nm laser 3

Is-1 Is-2 Is-3 Is-4

Input Output
EDF1 EDF2 EYCDF
SMTFB1 SMTFB2
WDM1 WDM2 WDM3
Splitter 975-nm laser 2 975-nm laser 4
30% 70%

980-nm laser 1 980-nm laser 2

Post-amplifier

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the hybrid erbium/ytterbium fiber amplifier.

 Z.G. Lu et al. / Optics Communications 256 (2005) 352–357 355

and WDM3 by backward pumping as shown in 50 25

Fig. 2.
In Fig. 2, the output signal of the pre-amplifier 40 20

Output power (dBm)

was fed through a high-power isolator-3 (Is-3) and

Gain / NF (dB)
into the Er/Yb co-doped single-mode core of a 30 15

double-cladding fiber spliced to two single-mode

tapered fiber bundle 1 and 2 (SMTFB 1 and 2). 20 10
Gain
The Er/Yb co-doped double-cladding fiber Noise figure
10 Output power 5
(EYCDF) consisted of a 6.6 lm diameter core, a
130 lm star-cladding-diameter shaped inner clad-
0 0
ding with a numerical aperture of 0.45, and a poly- -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10
mer outer cladding. An attenuation coefficient of Input power (dBm)

about 800 dB/m was measured at the 975-nm Yb Fig. 3. The gain, NF and the output power of the pre-amplifier
absorption peak for light propagating in the inner EDFA versus the input signal power when the total pump
cladding. The outputs of two 3-W facet-power power of 980-nm pump laser 1 and 2 was 500 mW and the
975-nm multimode un-cooled diode pump lasers measured signal wavelength was 1550 nm.
1 and 2 are injected into two multimode fibers that
are fused together and tapered to form a power From Fig. 3, we know the small-signal gain and
transition by forward pumping structure to the in- NF of this pre-amplifier could reach 42.15
ner cladding of the EYCDF. By the same way, and 5.4 dB at 1550 nm for an input power of
other two 3-W 975-nm multimode un-cooled diode
36 dBm, and the saturated output power at
pump lasers 3 and 4 are fused together and their 1550 nm could reach 21.60 dBm for an input power
outputs are tapered to form backward pumping la- of 6 dBm. The corresponding pumping conversion
sers for EYCDFA. So the EYCDFs were optically efficiency of this two-stage C-band EDFA was
pumped by four multimode un-cooled laser diodes about 28.9%. Due to the high output power of
of 975-nm through two single-mode taped fiber the post-amplifier EYCDFA and in order to avoid
bundles (SMTFBs). A low-index polymer coating any damage of the testing equipments, we have to
forms the outer cladding of the EYCDF. The for- use a 2/98 coupler to ensure 2% output signals
ward- and backward-propagating 975-nm lasers 1, going to an Ando AQ6317B Optical Spectra
2, 3 and 4 pump the Yb atoms in the core, and the Analyzer (OSA) and 98% output signals to an
Yb atoms transfer energy to the Er atoms, which ILX LightwaveÕs 10-W Fiber Optic Multimeter
provide gain at 1550 nm. A high-power isolator-4 (OMM-6810B) with the detector (OMH-6795B)
(Is-4) is placed at the output to protect any back- for our data taking. To test the power scaling of
reflection lights. this EYCDFA and to verify the output power pro-
portional to the power of the pump absorbed in the
EYCDF, we pumped with four multi-mode 975-
3. Results and discussions nm un-cooled diode lasers in a bidirectional pump-
ing configuration, as shown in Fig. 2. When we
We have investigated the performance charac- keep the input signal power is 21.6 dBm, we have
teristics of both the pre-amplifier EDFA and the plotted the curve of the output power of the
post-amplifier EYCDFA. For the pre-amplifier EYCDFA with the EYCDF length of 1380 cm ver-
EDFA, Fig. 3 gives the gain, NF and the output sus the total pump power as shown in Fig. 4. A
power versus the input signal power when the mea- maximum power of 36.90 dBm (or 4.9 W) has been
sured signal wavelength was setting at 1550 nm and obtained at 1550 nm and the signal output power
the pump powers of 980-nm pump lasers 1 and 2 of the EYCDFA is proportional to the power of
are 200 and 300 mW. The gain and NF of the the 975-nm pumping lasers absorbed in the
pre-amplifier EDFA have been taken considering EYCDF. To determine the conversion slope effi-
the values before Is-1 and after WDM3 in Fig. 2. ciency of the EYCDFA, the slope efficiency is
356 Z.G. Lu et al. / Optics Communications 256 (2005) 352–357

5000 When the pre-amplifier EDFA combined with

The length of the EYCDF is 1380 cm the post-amplifier EYCDFA to form a hybrid
4000 high-power fiber amplifier, we have measured the
relationship between the gain/the output power
Outputpower(mW)

3000 and the input signal power under maximum pump-

ing power conditions as shown in Fig. 6. The sig-
2000 nal gain of 70 dB has been obtained with a

36 dBm input power at 1555 nm, which is the
1000
highest gain of the fiber amplifiers we have seen
in the published papers as our best knowledge.
0
The maximum output power of 36.9 dBm is ob-
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 tained when the total pump laser power is 12.5
Pump power (mW) W and the input signal power at the wavelength
Fig. 4. The output power of the post-amplifier EYCDFA of 1550 nm is 6 dBm. The corresponding pumping
versus the pump power when the input signal power at the conversion efficiency of this hybrid fiber amplifier
wavelength of 1550 nm is 21.6 dBm. is about 39.2%. The input signal power was from

36 to 6 dBm, where lower powers were used at
found to be about 40% in the Fig. 4 when the length the wavelength corresponding to highest gains to
of the EYCDFs is 1380 cm. Fig. 5 gives the gain prevent significant gain saturation. We have also
and the output power of the post-amplifier EYCD- characterized the NFs of the hybrid fiber amplifier
FA versus the input signal power when the total at the maximum pumping power conditions. Due
pump power of the four 975-nm multi-mode un- to the high output power (>23 dBm), we need to
cooled pump lasers is 12.00 W and the measured measure the power levels of both ASE noise and
signal wavelength point is 1550 nm. The experi- input or amplified output signals one by one. Then
mental results clearly indicate when the input signal we can use the formula [12] NF(k) = {1 +
power within the range from
20.4 to 21.6 dBm is [k3PASE(k)]/[hc2(Dk)]}/G(k) to calculate their
increasing, the output power is increasing and the NFs. Here, G(k) = [Pout(k)
PASE(k)]/[Pin(k)], h
corresponding gain is decreasing. When the input is PlanckÕs constant, c is the speed of light, k is
signal power is less than
23.4 dBm, the output the vacuum wavelength, and Dk is the bandwidth
amplified signal power after the EYCDFA is al- of the optical detection system. When the measure-
most same because the ASE noise power of the ment is made by an OSA, Dk is taken to be the
EYCDFA is dominant in this case.
80 40
50 40
output power 70
45 output power 38
35
Outputpower (dBm)

40
Outputpower (dBm)

60
Gain (dB)

30 36
Gain (dB)

35
50
30 25
34
25 40
gain 20 gain
20 32
30
15
15 The length of the EYCDF is 1380
10 10 20 30
-31 -25 -19 -13 -7 -1 5 1 7 23 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10
Input power (dBm) Input power (dBm)

Fig. 5. Gain and output power of the EYCDFA versus the Fig. 6. Gain and output power of the hybrid fiber amplifier
input signal power at the wavelength of 1550 nm when the versus the input signal power when the total pump power was
pump power was about 12 W. 12.5 W and the measured signal wavelength was 1550 nm.
 Z.G. Lu et al. / Optics Communications 256 (2005) 352–357 357

resolution bandwidth of the OSA. Pin(k) and 4. Conclusions

Pout(k) are the optical powers within Dk (centered
at k), measured at the input and output of the An extremely high-gain and high-power hybrid
amplifier, respectively. PASE(k) is the ASE power fiber amplifier was developed and investigated. It
generated by the amplifier within Dk, centered at comprised a high-power EYCDFA using four
k. Based on the above formula, we have obtained multi-mode 975-nm diode lasers as the pump
the NFs of the pre-amplifier EDFA, the post- source in a bidirectional configuration and a
amplifier EYCDFA and their combination, i.e., well-designed two-stage C-band EDFA. The signal
the hybrid fiber amplifier as a function of input gain of up to 70 dB and the maximum output
power, as shown in Fig. 7. Here, the powers of power of 36.9 dBm have been achieved when the
the all-pumping lasers were setting at the maxi- total pumping power was about 12.5 W and the
mum values and the signal wavelength was signal wavelength was at 1550 nm. When we use
1550 nm. The NFs of the pre-amplifier EDFA the well-designed EDFA as the pre-amplifier to
and the post-amplifier EYCDFA vary from 5.3 combine with the post-amplifier EYCDFA, we
to 7.6 dB and from 7.3 to 16.5 dB, respectively. have achieved the good NF performance of the hy-
After combination of the EDFA and the EYCD- brid fiber amplifier, which vary from 6.12 to
FA, the NFs of the hybrid fiber amplifier vary 7.72 dB at the 1550-nm input signal wavelength
from 6.12 to 7.72 dB, which indicate a high with the power range from
21 to +6 dBm.
degree of inversion, at the 1550-nm input signal
wavelength with the power range from
21 to
+6 dBm. The results clearly indicate that the pre- References
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[2] P. Bousselet, M. Bettiati, L. Gasca, M. Goix, F. Boubal, A.
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-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10
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