University of Southampton

Masao Tachibana

Richard Ian Laming

David Neil Payne

Paul R Morkel

The spectral-gain characteristics of an erbium-doped fibre amplifier have been tailored by incorporating a gain-shaping-filter within the amplifier. The filter is chosen to modify the natural gain spectrum of the amplifier so as to suppress the gain peak and thus flatten the overall spectral-gain profile. Because the amplifier is distributed, it is possible to insert one or more filters along the length of the fibre. It is shown that there are considerable advantages to locating the filter within the length of the amplifier, rather than at the end, which is the more obvious choice. Advantages are that the amplifier pump efficiency is almost unaffected and the output saturation power is similar to that of the unshaped amplifier. In addition, the flat spectral gain provides an amplifier ideally-suited for use at a number of signal wavelengths, as required for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). The invention therefore comprises both the concept of filtering to shape the gain response of the amplifier and the recognition that this can be achieved without penalty by careful location of one or more filters along the length of the amplifier.

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Matsudo, Japan

Masao Tachibana