Inhomogeneous Gain Saturation in EDF: Experiment and Modeling

TL;DR

This paper investigates the inhomogeneous gain saturation in Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers through experiments and modeling, clarifying the origin of spectral gain holes in Wavelength Division Multiplexing.

Contribution

It introduces an experimental method to measure the homogeneous linewidth and a gain model that explains discrepancies in previous measurements.

Findings

Measured the homogeneous linewidth of erbium emission at 1.5 μm.

Developed a gain model explaining spectral hole burning.

Reconciled differences between various measurement techniques.

Abstract

Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers can present holes in spectral gain in Wavelength Division Multiplexing operation. The origin of this inhomogeneous saturation behavior is still a subject of controversy. In this paper we present both an experimental methods and a gain's model. Our experimental method allow us to measure the first homogeneous linewidth of the 1.5 $\mu$m erbium emission with gain spectral hole burning consistently with the other measurement in the literature and the model explains the differences observed in literature between GSHB and other measurement methods.