Development of High-Power Optical Amplifier

With the development of the D-WDM transmission tech- nology together with its practical applications in recent years, optical amplifiers --in particular the EDFA which is finding wide applications- used in these transmission sys- tems are required to have higher power. This is because, as the total power of optical signal increases due to the increase in multiplexing signals, so does the power of the EDFA necessary to obtain the same level of optical gain. Apart from this application, high-power EDFAs have such applications as repeater-less transmission system 1) , inter- satellite optical links 2) , and optical signal processing which With the development of the D-WDM (Dense Wavelength Division-Multiplex) transmission technology together with its practical applications in recent years, optical amplifiers --in particular EDFA (Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier)-- used in these transmis- sion systems are required to have ever higher performance. In this report, a high-power EDFA is presented which has achieved a high signal output of 1.5 W. The EDFA uses a set of high power pumping light sources in which the outputs of semiconductor laser diodes in the 1480-nm range are multiplexed over three wavelengths. ABSTRACT