Integrated optics erbium-ytterbium amplifier system in 10-Gb/s fiber transmission experiment

We report the full characterization of a pigtailed erbium-ytterbium codoped planar glass waveguide amplifier module. With a single 980-nm diode pump, this ion-exchanged 4.5-cm-long device delivers a signal gain of 16.5 dB, a noise figure of 5 dB, and a saturated output power of 12.5 dBm. To verify its practicality and stability, we tested this module as a power booster in a 10 Gb/s transmission system experiment at the 1534 nm wavelength, and demonstrated the successful bit-error-rate (BER<10/sup -12/) transmission over 72.5 km of dispersion shifted fiber.