Dispersion-compensator incorporated optical fiber amplifier

An optical fiber amplifier incorporating a dispersion compensator such as a dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) is proposed and examined theoretically and experimentally. The new amplifier requires only a single pump laser. In the experiment a 0.98-μm laser diode was used and the pump power was 50 mW. By utilizing remnant pump power, the amplifier can halve the loss effect of the compensator and double the apparent figure of merit of the DCF (ps/nm/dB). The noise figure of the new amplifier is not affected by inserting the DCP. A low-noise figure of 5 dB was obtained over a wide input-power range of -40 to -10 dBm.