Dependence of performance of saturated in-line erbium-doped fiber amplifiers on pump wavelength around 1480 nm

The effect of pump wavelength around 1480 nm on the performance of saturated erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) suitable for use as in-line amplifiers for terrestrial and submarine systems is investigated experimentally. The results show that for high-gain amplifiers (25 dB) with high output powers (15 dBm), operating around 10 dB in compression, the performance is relatively insensitive to pump wavelength. However, for lower gain amplifiers (12 dB), pumped at low (15 mW) powers, the compression of the amplifier is found to decrease significantly with increasing pump wavelength, while the noise figure shows a weak minimum for a pump wavelength near 1480 nm.<
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