Integrated cladding-pumped multi-core, few-mode erbium-doped fibre amplifier for space-division multiplexed communications

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable, integrated multi-core, few-mode erbium-doped fiber amplifier for space-division multiplexed communications, significantly increasing capacity with minimal complexity.

Contribution

It introduces a six-core, three-mode per core EDFA that amplifies 18 channels simultaneously using a single pump diode, enhancing SDM system scalability.

Findings

Amplifies 18 spatial channels simultaneously

Delivers over 20 dBm output power per core

Maintains less than 7 dB noise figure over C-band

Abstract

Space-division multiplexing (SDM), whereby multiple spatial channels in multimode and multicore optical fibers are used to increase the total transmission capacity per fiber, is being investigated to avert a data capacity crunch and reduce the cost per transmitted bit. With the number of channels employed in SDM transmission experiments continuing to rise, there is a requirement for integrated SDM components that are scalable. Here, we demonstrate a cladding-pumped SDM erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) that consists of six uncoupled multimode erbium-doped cores. Each core supports three spatial modes, which enables the EDFA to amplify a total of 18 spatial channels simultaneously with a single pump diode and a complexity similar to a single-mode EDFA. The amplifier delivers more than 20-dBm total output power per core and less than 7-dB noise figure over the C-band. This cladding-pumped EDFA enables combined space-division and wavelength-division multiplexed transmission over multiple multimode fiber spans.