Work

An Integrated Core-Pumped 4-Core Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier with Low Differential Core Gain

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We demonstrate an integrated core-pumped 4-core erbium-doped fiber amplifier (4C-EDFA) that achieves a record-low differential core gain of 0.5 dB across the whole C-band. This is enabled by utilizing a 4C-EDF with a minimal core-dependent absorption coefficient and passive devices with low core-dependent loss. The 4C-EDFA also exhibits an average gain of 15.50 dB, an average output power of 22.5 dBm, and a maximum noise figure of 4.91 dB. Furthermore, simulations on a 4-core fiber (4CF) transmission link confirm that the proposed 4C-EDFA can support transmission exceeding 10,000 km with a minimal inter-core Q2 difference of only 0.5 dB. Here, Q2 is defined as the ratio of the mean received signal levels to the corresponding noise variances. It is a critical metric in optical systems to quantify the signal quality, which highlights its potential for high-capacity and long-haul uncoupled 4CF systems.

Source: Photonics

DOI: 10.3390/photonics12111094