A Gaussian envelope based analysis of erbium doped fiber amplifiers using photonic crystal fibers

Higher field confinement in Photonic Crystal Fibers (PCFs) with larger air hole diameter, facilitates better interaction between the modal field and the doped erbium ions yielding higher gain. The effect of PCF pitch to air hole diameter ratio on the gain of an Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) using PCF is investigated and the results are presented in this paper. A triangular lattice PCF structure with index guiding is designed to be used in an EDFA. Modal fields are computed using Plane Wave Expansion (PWE) method and the rate equations are numerically solved using fourth order Runge Kutta method. The results are compared with those obtained by using a Step Index Fiber (SIF) in the amplifier. It is observed that a PCF EDFA provides better gain for a given length of the fiber as compared to the SIF.