This paper discusses the status of FTTP plans and deployment in the United States and in Japan. An overview of PON standards is provided, along with a discussion of video delivery over a PON network. The choice of a particular technical implementation for PON and video delivery is explained by equipment providers (AFC and Harmonic Inc.) and followed by a discussion of its deployment in Verizon's service provider network. Finally, we review the history and status of FTTP deployments in Japan.

This chapter discusses optical fiber amplifiers for 1.3 μm signal wavelengths, produced using rare earth ions including Pr3+ (doped in a fluoride host) and Nd3+ (doped in a nonsilica host). Pr3+ has received the most attention and has found applications in systems demonstrations. The 1.3 μm fiber amplifiers have not yet found the same commercial success as their erbium cousins because of following reasons: the lower efficiency of current 1.3 μm fiber amplifiers, which necessitates significantly higher pump levels than in the case of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers; the need for fluoride fiber processing and fabrication technology, which is less widespread and more complex than that of silica fibers; and 1.3 μm amplifiers are directed toward the older 1.3 μm fiber plant, while today's transmission networks are increasingly directed toward the 1.5 μm wavelength. Moreover, this discussion highlights 1.3 μm amplifiers as an area of current research and development interest.

This chapter discusses the various key components of different types that make up a real amplifier. It also emphasizes fusion-splicing techniques and fiber connectors used to piece together the different elements of an amplifier along with other complex elements, such as isolators, circulators, filters, and gratings. Fusion splicing provides low-loss and high-strength fiber joining between like and unlike fibers. Splicing, in general, relies on the radiant heating of the two fiber ends by an arc, filament, or flame source while pushing the two fiber ends toward one another. Analytical models of this process have been developed that include the details of the heating, viscous flow, and resulting stress. Although the cores are aligned prior to fusion splicing, the surface tension forces during the viscous sintering of the two fiber ends may misalign the cores. Therefore,it is important to provide fiber with low concentricity error to achieve the lowest possible losses. This chapter also touches on components that increase the amplified system performance, such as dispersion compensators and add/drop filters. The chapter describes the various pump lasers used to pump erbium-doped fiber amplifiers.

This chapter reviews the fundamentals needed to model gain in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers followed by the discussion of the calculations of gain in both the small signal and saturation regimes to reach an intuitive understanding of the gain process. The underpinning of the gain process consists of coupled atomic population and light flux propagation equations. Using certain assumptions, the three-level system is reduced to an equivalent two-level system. Moreover, this discussion highlights the importance of the absorption and emission cross-sections, and the amplified stimulated emission. This chapter also discusses the analytical models of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, which do not necessitate complex numerical procedures to solve for the gain.

This chapter reviews the fundamental atomic properties of trivalent rare earth ions, their behavior in a glass matrix, and the optical properties. The optical properties of the rare earth ions underlie all the bulk and fiber lasers and amplifiers made with these ions. In addition, it examines the peculiar and unique atomic characteristics of the 4f electrons of rare earth ions and the models are developed to understand and parameterize the optical spectra of rare earth ions in crystals and glasses. Moreover, this chapter focuses on the spectroscopic fundamentals, lifetimes, and cross sections of the transitions to model the behavior of fiber amplifiers. It also introduces the McCumber theory for cross-section determination and ion–ion interaction effects that enter into play at high erbium concentrations.

Praseodymium-doped ZBLAN fibre amplifiers pumped by high power M-MOPA laser diodes demonstrate output powers up to 17.1dBm and small signal gain levels up to 26dB at 1.31 mu m wavelength. Optical receiver preamplification using an M-MOPA pumped PDFA results in a 4dB sensitivity improvement for a 2.5Gbit/s transmission experiment.

Ultrashort mid-infrared pulses at a repetition rate of 82 MHz have been generated by difference-frequency mixing at the output of a single-cavity, two-color femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser. The center wavelengths of the midinfrared pulses are tunable from 7.5 to 12.5 mu m. Their pulse durations range from 450 to 650 fs, as a function of the center wavelength.

We demonstrate the modification of spontaneous emission of Er atoms implanted into the SiO2 active region of Si/SiO2 planar microcavities. The modification of spontaneous lifetime by a cavity at radio frequencies was first proposed by Purcell1 in 1946. Other authors have demonstrated that confocal resonators indeed can drastically modify the spontaneous emission lifetime of an atom within a resonator at millimeter wavelengths2. This concept has been extended to short planar cavities at optical wavelengths3–7 in the past few years. The theory of emission from planar microcavities has also been advancing4,8–11. In this and previous works12,13, we have demonstrated the microcavity-modified spontaneous emission from a rare earth atom in a solid-state host. This may have potential device applications, since Er emits at the wavelength of the loss-minimum in glass fibers. Primarily, however, these structures are ideal for demonstrating spontaneous emission enhancement, spectral narrowing, and modification of emission lifetime. The short effective cavity lengths, the narrow natural Er spectrum, and the lack of self-absorption by the Er-atoms within the cavity maximize the microcavity effects. Spontaneous emission enhancement at the cavity resonance wavelength of two orders of magnitude is demonstrated. We also compare the lifetime of the atoms in various thickness cavities to a comprehensive model of emission from a planar microcavity. Finally, we theoretically examine the effects of reducing the device area on the spontaneous emission factor β and the observed spectrum.

A remotely pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifier system is described that provides a record budget improvement over a non-remotely pumped system of 11 dB for 145 mW of pump power. The improvement over previously reported experiments is a result of increased pump power as well as careful optimization of the fibers utilized.< >