OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS

Contents

Introduction Doped Fiber amplifiers Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers Difference Between DFAs & SOAs Features of Optical Amplifiers Conclusion Reference
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Introduction

Conventional repeater
photon-to-electron conversion electrical amplification retiming pulse shaping electron-to-photon conversion
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Works well for moderate-speed singlewavelength operation. Becomes complex and expensive for high-speed multi-wavelength systems.

Optical Amplifiers (OAs)

Operates completely in the optical domain.

Boost the power levels of lightwave signals for the two long-wavelength transmission windows of optical fibers.

Increases power level of the incident light through a stimulated emission process.
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OA structure is similar to that of a laser. Does not have the optical feed-back mechanism that is necessary for lasing to take place. An OA can boost incoming signal levels, but cannot generate a coherent optical output by itself.
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Such device can be bidirectional and if it is sufficiently linear it may allow multiplex operation of several signals at different optical wavelengths.

 The two main OAs types can be classified as:

Optical Amplifiers

Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOAs)

Doped Fiber Amplifiers (DFAs)

 SOAs or semiconductors laser amplifiers (SLAs) utilize stimulated emission from injected carrier, and In DFAs or optical fiber amplifiers (OFAs) or simply fiber amplifiers, gain is provided by either stimulated Raman or Brillouin scattering or by rare earth dopants.

Doped Fiber Amplifiers

In DFAs, optical fiber core is doped by rare earth elements e.g. erbium, praseodymium etc. 1550-nm window The active medium for operation is created by lightly doping a silica fiber core with rareearth elements such as Erbium (Er) or Ytterbium (Yb).
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 1300-nm window

For this window the DFAs is achieved through doping fluoride-based fiber (rather than silica fibers) with element such as Neodymium (Nd) and Praseodymium (Pr).
In DFAs population inversion is achieved by optical pumping.
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 The basic scheme for optical pumping is as shown.

Forward pumped doped fiber amplifier.

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 A coupler is used for combining the information signal and the pump signal. The pump power is generated by semiconductor laser diodes at suitable wavelengths. For higher amplification, more population inversion is desired over the larger length.
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 Types of Pumping

Forward pumping

Backward pumping
Bidirectional pumping

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 The pump power reduces along the propagation direction, the population inversion also reduces.

Hence the signal amplification depends upon the population inversion profile along the length of doped fiber.

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Features of DFAs
Signal for both bit 1 and 0 experiences same amplifier gain when very high bit rate signals are amplified, this results in comparatively less cross-saturation effect in DFAs.

Cross-saturation effect.

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 The DFAs can be used as in-line component in fiber optic link.

The signal polarization does not affect the gain of these amplifiers. Major types of DFAs:

Rare earth doped fiber amplifiers,

Raman fiber amplifiers & Brillouin fiber amplifiers.

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Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

SOAs are

Basically semiconductor lasers which operate below lasing threshold. Require population inversion so that stimulated emission and hence amplification can take place.
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 SOAs have a similar structure to FabryPerot laser diode but with anti-reflection design elements at the endfaces. The population inversion is achieved by means of electrical energy.

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 Typically made from group III-V compound semiconductors, though any direct band gap semiconductors be used.

A SOA has two facets and reflectivities of these facets decide whether the device will operate as a SOA or a semiconductor laser.

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 Classified into two main groups

Fabry-Perot amplifiers (FPAs)

Traveling wave amplifiers (TWAs)

When reflectivities are non-zero but quite small, the signal passes through the cavity several times.
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 Fabry-Perot amplifier (FPA)

When the signal within the cavity reduces with the successive passes and dies out ultimately.

Traveling wave amplifier (TWA)

When the facet reflectivities are zero, input signal passes through the device only once.

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Schematic diagram of an SOA

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Features of SOAs
The SOA is of small size and electrically pumped.

Potentially less expensive than the EDFA (Erbium-doped fibre amplifiers) Integrated with modulators, etc. semiconductor lasers,

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 The SOA has higher noise, lower gain, moderate polarization dependence & high nonlinearity with fast transient time.
High optical nonlinearity makes SOAs attractive for all optical signal processing like all-optical switching and wavelength conversion. When R1R2 < 0.17, approximated as TWA. the FPA can be

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Difference Between DFAs & SOAs

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Features of Optical Amplifiers

In similar manner to electronic repeaters, OAs
may be employed in a simplex mode where each transmitted optical signal is carried on a separate fiber link.

Simplex mode
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 OAs have the ability to operate simultaneously in both directions at the same carrier wave length.

Duplex mode
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Conclusion
OAs operate solely in the optical domain with no interconversion of photons to electrons.
The OA can be used for any kind of modulation at virtually any transmission rate.
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 Such systems do not require full regeneration of the transmitted digital signal at each repeater, and optical amplification of the signal proves sufficient.

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Semiconductors laser amplifiers (SLAs), can be classified into

Fabry-Perot amplifiers (FPAs) Traveling wave amplifiers (TWAs)

Fiber amplifiers, can be classified into

Rare earth doped fiber amplifiers Raman fiber amplifiers and Brillouin fiber amplifiers
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Reference
Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers, Michael J. Connelly, 2002, Kluwer Academic Press. Optical Fiber Communications, John M. Senior, 2003, Prentice Hall of India. Optical Fiber Communications, John Gover, 1993, Prentice Hall of India.

Optical Fiber Communications, G. Kieser, 1991, McGraw Hill Inc.

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 Yatindra Nath Singh ,Studies on Placement of Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers in Wavelength Division Multiplexed Star and Tree Topology Networks, Thesis, September 1996. Encyclopedia of Semiconductor Optical Amplifier; http://www.wikipedia.com

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