arXiv · 1703.06475
Integrated cladding-pumped multi-core, few-mode erbium-doped fibre amplifier for space-division multiplexed communications
Abstract
Space-division multiplexing (SDM), whereby multiple spatial channels in multimode and multicore optical fibers are used to increase the total transmission capacity per fiber, is being investigated to avert a data capacity crunch and reduce the cost per transmitted bit. With the number of channels employed in SDM transmission experiments continuing to rise, there is a requirement for integrated SDM components that are scalable. Here, we demonstrate a cladding-pumped SDM erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) that consists of six uncoupled multimode erbium-doped cores. Each core supports three spatial modes, which enables the EDFA to amplify a total of 18 spatial channels simultaneously with a single pump diode and a complexity similar to a single-mode EDFA. The amplifier delivers more than 20-dBm total output power per core and less than 7-dB noise figure over the C-band. This cladding-pumped EDFA enables combined space-division and wavelength-division multiplexed transmission over multiple multimode fiber spans.
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H. Chen, C. Jin, B. Huang, N. K. Fontaine, R. Ryf, K. Shang, N. Grégoire, S. Morency, R. -J. Essiambre, G. Li, Y. Messaddeq, S. LaRochelle. 2017-03-19. Integrated cladding-pumped multi-core, few-mode erbium-doped fibre amplifier for space-division multiplexed communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.125
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