BOA: balanced optical amplifier

An efficient balanced optical amplifier (BOA) configuration is presented. In this technique, the four ports of a multiplexer coupler are used to combine signal and pump in a symmetric fashion. The use of this single-coupler-based design in both 980-nm pumped erbium-doped fiber preamplifier and power booster arrangements, is described. It is shown that the BOA design provides pump redundancy, dual pumping while preventing pump cross-talk, automatic gain control (AGC) potential, and self-gain equalization capability over the whole 1550-nm transmission window.<>