Gain and noise properties of self-saturated erbium doped fiber amplifiers

An experimental study on the self-saturation phenomena of an erbium doped fiber amplifier was carried out. The self-saturation effect on the variations of the gain and the noise figure properties as the pump wavelength was detuned were studied. A dip of 9.57 dB in the gain spectrum was reduced to 0.52 dB as the signal self-saturation effect takes over the amplifier self-saturation effect.