Laboratory exercise TFE4165 Applied Photonics Version: September 5, 2007.

Gain and Noise Figure of Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier

Room: A478 (Koherentlab) Supervisor: Erlend Leirset, room B417, erlend.leirset@iet.ntnu.no Motivation
In this exercise we will study the properties of an important component in optical networks: the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). Due to the low propagation loss of optical fibers, data signals can travel many kilometers before amplification is needed. Nevertheless, when the distance between transmitter and receiver approaches and goes beyond 100 km, amplifiers are necessary.

We will measure two important properties of the EDFA: gain and noise figure. These two numbers are used by system designers to calculate maximum transmission distance, maximum number of wavelength channels, the number of amplifiers needed, the optimal distance between amplifiers etc. Before the Lab Read this text and get a basic understanding of the principles of the EDFA. We will not go into details. In order to work as efficient as possible in the lab, it is important to understand how to calculate the gain and noise figure. Here are some questions you should be able to answer before the lab: dBm and mW are two important units of measurement. What is the relation between these units? Should the noise figure Fn in Equation (2) be larger or smaller than 1?
What is in Equation (4) whe n the bandwidth of the OSA is 1 nm?

Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers An EDFA is an optical fiber of which the core is doped with the rare-earth element Erbium. By exciting the Erbium ions to higher energy levels, we can achieve amplification of signals at wavelengths interesting for optical communication, i.e. around 1550 nm. The energy levels are not very sharp, which leads to a relatively large gain bandwidth.
In order to excite the Er -ions, we send a beam of light, which we call the pump, into the fiber. If the pump is at wavelength 980 nm, Er will rise from the ground state L1 to the higher L3, as illustrated in Fig. 1. However, the ions will rapidly decay to energy level L2 without producing photons. The lifetime in L3 is approximately 1 s. Pumping with 1480 nm light will excite the ions directly to state L2. Relaxation from L2 to L1 will occur after approximately 10 ms, producing photons in the wavelength band 1520-1570 nm. This is called spontaneous emission.
3+ 3+

Fig. 1: Energy levels of Er

3+

ions in EDFA.

If we send a data signal with a wavelength between 1520 and 1570 nm into the fiber, there are three possible outcomes for the signal photon: 1. it can excite an Erbium ion from state L1 to a higher state and become annihilated in the process. The result is spontaneous emission when the ion subsequently decays to the ground state. 2. it can stimulate an ion at state L2 to decay to L1, producing another photon at the same wavelength and with the same direction of propagation as the signal photon. The new photon can in turn stimulate more L2-L1 transitions along the fiber. Thus, the signal is amplified. 3. it can propagate unaffected through the fiber.
Spontaneous emission has no correlation with the signal, but is distributed over the entire bandwidth of the L2-L1 transition and can travel in backward as well as forward propagation direction. Hence, it is noise. Obviously, outcome 2 is the desired behaviour of an amplifier and can be achieved by pumping the fiber until population inversion occurs: when the number of ions in state L2 exceeds the number of ions in the ground state, the probability of outcome 2 is higher than that of 1 and 3.

However, spontaneous emission is always present and will, like the signal, experience amplification as it propagates through the fiber. This is termed amplified spontaneous emission or ASE. While the ASE level is independent of the signal at low signal powers, high signal powers will deplete the population inversion faster than the pump can maintain it, and the ASE level increases.

The gain of the EDFA is limited by the fact that there are a limited number of Erbium ions in the core. Increasing the pump power beyond the point where all ions are excited cannot produce more gain and thus saturation occurs. The definition of gain G is:
,

(1)

which is the ratio of the amplifier output signal power Ps,out to the input signal power

Ps,in. The noise figure NF is a measure of how much noise the amplifier adds to the signal. The definition is:
,

(2)

where SNR is the signal-to-noise ratio. Due to ASE, the SNRout at the amplifier output is less than that at the input, SNRin. If the signal is much stronger than the noise, the

noise figure can be written as [1]

,

(3)

where PASE is the ASE noise power, h is Plancks constant, is the frequency of the light and sp is the bandwidth of the noise (i.e. the bandwidth of the EDFA).

Gain and noise figure is often given in the logarithmic dB unit: (4)

The Experiment We will measure the gain and noise figure of an EDFA as a function of signal and pump power. The experimental setup is shown schematically in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2: Schematic illustration of the experimental setup. EDFA: erbium-doped fiber amplifier; OSA: optical spectrum analyzer.

Light from a 1550 nm laser is sent through a variable attenuator before entering an EDFA. The output power of the laser is adjusted so that the signal power into the EDFA is 0 dBm when the attenuator shows 0 dB attenuation. The pump power can be adjusted from 0 to approximately 70 mW. The output of the EDFA is measured by an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) and will resemble that of Fig. 3.

IMPORTANT: Assure that the input power to the OSA never exceeds 10 dBm!

Higher powers may damage the photo detector.

Fig. 3: Typical output power spectrum of an EDFA. A broad pedestal due to ASE noise covers the entire gain bandwidth. The signal peak is at 1550 nm. Two power levels are indicated: measured noise power P ASE,meas below the signal peak, and measured total power P s,out + PASE,meas at the signal peak.

One can find the amplifier gain G by using Equation (1). Calculate Ps,out by subtracting the measured pedestal PASE,meas from the measured peak power Ps,out + PASE,meas shown in Fig. 3. The pedestal is caused by ASE noise.

The noise figure is given by Equation (3). In addition we must use the relation
.

(5)

PASE is distributed over the entire bandwidth sp of the EDFA. However, the OSA measures the noise power PASE,meas within a small band , which is the resolution bandwidth of the OSA. The factor 2 is due to the fact that the light has two states of

polarization and that we measure the power of both, while PASE is the power of one polarization state only.

Exercises 1. Set the pump power to 10 mW and find output power Ps,out, gain G and noise figure NF for signal powers Ps,in ranging from -40 to 0 dBm. Plot G and NF (in dB units) versus Ps,in (in dBm). 2. Repeat 1 with 40 mW pump power. 3. Set the signal power to -10 dBm and find Ps,out, G and NF for pump powers from 1 to 60 mW. You need several measuring points between 1 and 10 mW. Plot G and NF (in dB) versus pump power (in mW).
Plot the results and explain the graphs. What happens when the signal power increases while pump power is kept constant? What happens when the pump power increases and signal power is kept constant? What pump and signal powers are favourable?

An optical transmission system consists of a laser with output power -10 dBm, a fiber with 0.2 dB propagation loss per kilometer and a receiver with sensitivity -30 dBm. What is maximum fiber length?
Next, we increase the transmission distance by inserting the characterized EDFA as a power amplifier between the laser and the fiber link. Calculate maximum fiber length.

References
[1] P. C. Becker, N. A. Olsson, J. R. Simpson: Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers Fundamentals and Technology, Academic Press, San Diego, 1999.