Pump Power Reduction in Optical Fiber Amplifier for WDM-Interleaved Multi-Core/Multi-Fiber System

The effect of reducing the pump power in a multi-core erbium-doped fiber amplifier (MC-EDFA) designed for a wavelength-division-multiplexing-interleaved multi-core/multi-fiber system is investigated. An analysis of the asymptotic behavior of the pump power ratio of the MC-EDFA and discrete single-core EDFAs, derived by using the analytical EDFA model with an average inversion level, shows a remarkable effect of the pump power reduction in an MC-EDFA when the input signal power or the amplifier gain is small. Experimental results are consistent with the analysis of the pump efficiency. The allowable excess losses of optical components in an MC-EDFA are also investigated by using the analytical expression of an EDFA.