Introduction of Optical Amplifier

With the rapid development of the optic communication networks, longer

transmission lengths are required. Optical amplifier can satisfy the
requirements of optical communication networks. An optical amplifier is a
device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert
it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be considered as a laser
without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback from the cavity
is suppressed. This post is going to help you get a better understanding of
optical amplifier.

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Working Principles of Optical Amplifier
A basic optical communication link contains a transmitter and receiver, with an
optical fiber cable connecting them. Although signals transmitting in optical
fiber suffer far less attenuation than in other mediums, such as copper, there is
still a limitation about 100 km on the distance the signals can travel before
becoming too noisy to be detected.
Optical amplifiers are widely used in fiber optic data links. Figure 1 shows three
ways in which optical amplifiers can be used to strengthen the performance of
optical data links. A booster amplifier is used to increase the optical output of
an optical transmitter just before the signal enters an optical fiber. The
optical signal is attenuated as it travels in the optical fiber. An inline amplifier is
utilized to restore (regenerate) the optical signal to its original power level. An
optical pre-amplifier is operated at the end of the optical fiber link in order to
increase the sensitivity of an optical receiver.

Figure 1. Optical amplifiers in fiber optic communication links

Features of Optical Amplifier

Ratio of output power to input power

Gain as a fuction of input power
Range of wavelengths over which the amplifier is effective

Maxmum output power, beyond which no amplification is

reached
undesired signal due to physical processing in amplifier

Optical fiber, made by a special process, in the fiber core layer

deposition,incorporated with minimal concentration of rare earth elements,
such as erbium, praseodymium or rubidium plasma, can produce
corresponding erbium-doped, mixed with praseodymium or rubidium optical
fiber. Fiber doping ions after motivated by the pump in the transition to the
stability of the high excited state, under the induction signal light, stimulated
radiation is produced, form a coherent amplification of the signal light.This
OFA is essentially a special laser, its working cavity is a rare earth doped fiber
particles, pump generally adopts the semiconductor laser light source.

The current optical fiber communication system operates in two low loss
window: 1.55 mu m band and 1.31 mu m band. Select a different doping
elements, can make the amplifier working in different window.

Erbium-doped Optical Fiber Amplifier (EDFA)

The erbium doped fiber amplifier is composed of an erbium doped fiber and a
pumped light source, as shown in Figure 2. Erbium-doped fiber is the
incorporation of the appropriate concentration of erbium ions in the silica fiber
in the core ( Er3+), the role of the pump source is provided to the erbium ion
energy, it would be from a low energy level, "pumped" to a higher energy level,
it has optical gain function. When there is no pump function and the energy
state of the Er3 + ions known as the ground state; after the pump energy
absorption,Er3+ will be in a higher energy state, namely the transition from the
ground state to an excited state. Since the lifetime of the high energy state is
very short, the excited state of the Er3+ is rapidly over to the excited state, and

the lifetime of the excited state is much longer, which is called the metastable
state. When the Er3+ return from the transition of metastable excited state to
ground state, the extra energy into fluorescence radiation, the wavelength of
light radiation is determined by the metastable and energy level difference of
base stations. In the 1550nm band, under the constant action of the pumping
source, the metastable excited state of Er3+ is accumulated, and the number
of the ions can exceed the number of ions in the ground state. When the
number of particles in the high-energy state exceeds the number of particles,
the inversion state of the particle number is reached.Only in this state can
there be light amplification.Such as the photon energy of incident light signal is
equal to the energy difference between the ground state and metastable,
namely the light wavelength and the wavelength of the radiation of light are the
same, it will also cause by the absorption of ground state and metastable leaps
and metastable - the launch of the ground state transition, transition to absorb
light energy absorption, launch transition energy, the size of the absorption
and emission light energy from the ground state and metastable is proportional
to the particle density.Because of the inversion of the number of particles, the
total effect is that the emission of the light exceeds the absorbed light, which
makes the incident light enhanced and the optical amplification is obtained.

Usage Tips
Troubleshooting
Fiber amplifier, the panel displays and the actual output is
synchronized, if panel display is normal, then optical amplifier output
is normal, if the amplifier power down or not when testing in this
case,there are several possibilities:
1. PM not allowed, domestic power meter can only test the equipment of
smaller output , can not test EDFA of higher output, the power meter of
testing optical amplifier must be imported, can't use the inaccurate
instrument as the standard.
2. The output port of flange is damaged, the possibility is small.

3. Improper use, plug when machine is working, burn the output fiber tip of
amplifier, cause the amplifier output power down, as this happens, just
re-welded to the optical amplifier output connector.
4. The pigtail of users is of poor quality,the core is too long, abrade the
output connector of amplifier after inserting pigtail, the phenomenon is
that the first test is good, the second time power is declined after
inserted into test again, the solution to this problem is as long as to
re-welding optical amplifier output connector.
5. The wavelength of light source is wrong, if the wavelength of 1550 nm
light transmitter has a deviation, can cause amplifier output power is not
enough, also can cause small panel displays.
6. Smaller light power of input optical amplifier, if it's lower than the
standard values may lead to smaller light power, and panel display will
be smaller.

Notes
1. Do not point the fiber output to the human body, especially the eyes, so
as to avoid damage.
2. Do not route connections in an energized state, so as to avoid improper
operation of output pigtail end face burns.
3. As the output power of the product is large, please pay attention to the
workshop temperature of the machine, keep good ventilation

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