Praseodymium doped fibre amplifier for optical amplification at 1300 nm

We present experimental and simulation results of a codirectionally pumped praseodymium doped fibre amplifier (PDFA) for the 1300 nm region. Fibre net gain over input power, wavelength and pump power are presented together with noise figures. Various configurations of fibre amplifiers are investigated and an optimized solution is presented, where the optical signal at the end of the amplifier is reflected back and thus travels twice through the doped fibre. With a pump power of 300 mW, a 35 dB gain is obtained which is about 10 dB higher than for codirectionally pumped amplifiers. Figures for SNR and bit-error probability are presented which show, that the transmission link attenuation is no longer the limiting factor for the transmission length at a bit rate of 2.5 Gbit/s.