Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
FEBRUARY 1991 27 1
Abstract-Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are modeled using the can often be solved with slight changes to the amplifier equa-
propagation and rate equations of a homogeneous, two-level laser me- tions.
dium. Numerical methods are used to analyze the effects of optical
modes and erbium confinement on amplifier performance, and to cal- In Section 11, we briefly comment on the spectroscopic prop-
culate both the gain and ASE spectra. Fibers with confined erbium erties of the erbium in glass. The rate equations for the ion pop-
doping are completely characterized from easily measured parame- ulation distribution and the propagation equations are introduced
ters: the ratio of the linear ion density to fluorescence lifetime, and the in Section 111. The rest of the paper is devoted to analyzing
absorption of gain spectra. Then analytical techniques allow accurate
evaluation of gain, saturation, and noise in low-gain amplifiers ( G s
specific models. These models are presented in order of dimin-
20 dB). ishing complexity. Sections IV and V describe numerical models
that simulate the guided modes and ASE spectrum, respec-
tively. Following the numerical models, several analytical
I. INTRODUCTION models derived from simplified rate and propagation equations,
10
0 0
1480 1500 1520 1540 1560
WAVELENGTH (nm)
(a)
trum [25], [26]. One form of this equation is and spectral hole broadening [27], [28], have recently been ap-
plied to erbium-doped glasses and fibers to resolve the homo-
geneous and inhomogeneous linewidths [29]-[3 11.
Measurements of alumino-silicate and fluoride glasses have
shown the inhomogeneous linewidth to be comparable to or less
where ha,p , p p a k is the wavelength at the absorption (emission) than the homogeneous line broadening. Germano-silicate
peak, 7 is the lifetime of the metastable level, n is the refractive glasses, appear to have greater inhomogeneous linewidths ( - 8
GILES AND DESURVIRE: MODELING ERBIUM-DOPED FIBER AMPLIFIERS 213
nm) than the room temperature homogeneous linewidth (3-4 ground and metastable states. For this two-levcl system with
nm ). Recent study which compared a homogeneous description the k optical beams
to an inhomogeneous description based on (3), indicates that
gain saturation in alumino-silicate glasses can be modeled to be
homogeneous [32]. This is less certain for some glasses, in-
cluding the germano-silicate glass, and more study is needed.
However, many experiments using both alumino-silicate and
germano-silicate fibers have been successfully explained with
homogeneous models. In the rest of this paper, we will consider n , ( r , 4, z ) = n , ( r , 4, z ) + n 2 ( r , 4, z ) . (7)
only homogeneous gain effects.
Lastly, we justify the two-level model of the amplifier gain Equation (7) is the particle conservation for the two level sys-
medium. For pumping into the 980-nm absorption band, this tem, where q ( r , 4, z ) is the local erbium ion density.
implies that the population in the 4Z,I l2manifold is negligible. The remaining equations describe the propagation of the
This depletion of the pump level is nominally satisfied when the beams through the fiber, i.e.,
nonradiative decay rate from the pump level W,, is much larger
than the pumping rate Wpump= Ppuup/hv,A where P, is the
pump power, v,, is the pump frequency, and A is the mode area.
For typical fiber amplifier parameters, treating the 980-nm
pumped amplifier with a two-level model is valid for average
pump powers less than 1 W; this is satisfied in all reported fiber
amplifier experiments. Although W,,. increases exponentially
with the energy gap between levels [33], the two-level model
where each beam is traveling either in the forward ( uL = 1 ) or
can be used for short wavelength pumps, e.g., 800 and 670 nm,
backward ( uk = - 1 ) direction. Here mhVk AV, is the contribu-
because the nonradiative decay is a fast process passing through
tion of spontaneous emission from the local n2 population, and
intermediate levels to fill the metastable level. Finally,
its growth through the amplifier. In models that have ASE, both
direct pumping into the 4113,2-4Z15/2 transition also behaves as
the forward and backward components should be included. The
a two-level system because of the rapid thermalization in the
number of modes m is normally 2, as in the case of the optical
metastable manifold.
fiber supporting only the two polarization states of the lowest
order optical mode.
111. PROPAGATION AND RATE EQUATION Once the boundary conditions for the k beams are specified
Models of homogeneously broadened two-level systems are at z = 0, L , (6) and (8) are integrated over space ( z ) , optical
useful for fiber amplifiers pumped in the 1480- and 980-nm ab- frequency ( k ) , and time (1). By setting the time derivative in
sorption bands. Additional equations are needed for more com- (6) equal to zero, the problem is reduced to the steady-state
plex models incorporating effects such as pump excited-state case. This condition is applicable for CW beams, or those mod-
absorption, energy transfer between ions, or inhomogeneous -
ulated at frequencies greater than 10 kHz [34], [35]. In Sec-
broadening. However, because the methods of solution are sim- tion VIII, small-signal analysis is used to establish the validity
ilar for all these cases, the examples here are restricted to the of CW models.
two-level model. Then it is easier to validate approximations to Several steady-state models are examined here, as shown in
the overlap integral and the effective ASE bandwidth, and to the tree diagram of Fig. 3. The diagraq branches between
compare the numerical and analytical models. models that include the radial optical and erbium distributions,
We can think of light in the amplifier to be propagating as a and those that utilize an effective overlap integral. Using the
number of optical beams of frequency bandwidth Avk centered effective overlap integral greatly reduces the computational ef-
at the optical wavelength A, = c / v k . This notation describes fort, but assumes the special condition that the erbium is con-
both narrow line beams such as pump and signal sources when fined to the center of the optical mode. Otherwise, arbitrary
AVk = 0, and broadband ASE where AV, equals the frequency dopant distributions are analyzed using spatial models. Spatial
steps used in the simulation to resolve the ASE spectrum. Then models are used to optimize the fiber waveguide and dopant
integration over optical frequency is approximated by a sum- distribution.
mation over k. Integrating the light intensity distribution of the Branching occurs between models that include ASE and those
kth beam I,( r , 4, z ) over the radial and azimuthal coordinates that ignore it. ASE terms are required for calculating amplifier
gives the beam's total power P k ( z ) at position z in the fiber noise and gain saturation caused by ASE. In some cases the
amplifier ASE might be modeled as optical power in an effective noise
bandwidth A y e f f .Although the noise bandwidth changes with
inversion, error from using A V ,is~ minimized by establishing a
(4) priori, a bandwidth corresponding to the operating point. Oth-
erwise, the full ASE spectrum should be resolved.
The normalized optical intensity is defined as
Iv. SPATIAL-MODEMODELINGIN ERBIUMAMPLIFIERS
4 ( r 34 ) = h ( r , 4, Z ) / P k ( Z ) . (5)
A good amplifier should have high efficiency, low noise, and
Here we assumed that I k ( r , 4, z ) is separable such that the a low pump threshold. Among the factors affecting these are the
shape of the kth optical mode is independent of z . spatial modes of the pump and signal light, and the distribution
Rate equations describe the effects of absorption, stimulated of the erbium ions. Small mode sizes obviously help to reduce
emission, and spontaneous emission on the populations of the the pump power needed to achieve gain. Lower pump thresh-
214 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY. VOL. 9. NO. 2 . FEBRUARY 1991
where the overlap integral between the dopant and optical mode
is
r k
STATE rk = :1 i k ( r ,4 ) r dr d 4 . (12)
“pgq I
INTEGRAL
I
INTEGRAL Written in terms of these new parameters, the amplifier propa-
gation equation becomes
NUMERICAL
SOLUTION
-
ANALYTICAL
S0LUT ION
- An additional loss term lk has been added to the propagation
equation to account for excess fiber loss. This loss can be sig-
Fig. 3 . Tree diagram showing relationships among existing amplifier nificant in fibers having high water content, scattering from de-
models. Numbers indicate sections in this paper describing the numerical
or analytical model.
vitrification in high-index cores, or in fibers that are lightly
doped for use as distributed amplifiers [40]. If n2 = 0, the prop-
agation equation reduces to that of exponential attenuation at a
olds are also obtained by confining the erbium to the center loss rate a, + I,; complete inversion has n2 = n,, then the gain
portion of the optical modes where the intensities are highest exponent is g: - 1,.
and pumping is most efficient. The set of equations is closed with the steady-state approxi-
Here we examine fiber design using a step approximation to mation to the metastable population, which from (6) is
the core-index profile and a weakly guided approximation for
the optical-mode distribution [36]. Then the normalized inten-
sity distribution of the fundamental mode (LP,,) for a fiber
having core radius a core index ncorerand cladding index nclad
is
(Yk = Gal :1 SI i k ( r , 4 ) n , ( r , 4, z ) r dr d 4
bandwidth was estimated to be 1250 GHz ( 1 0 nm). Calcula-
tions were made for three values of b values to illustrate the
importance of obtaining localized erbium doping. The values of
-10 - 6 - -10- 6 ~ 20 -
-20 - 4- -20 - 4 - 10 -
-30
-40 I 2 -
0-
-30 -
-40 ~
2
0
-
- -10
0-
0
PUMP POWER (mW) PUMP POWER (mW)
(a) (b)
rE I
PnsE(dBm) - - -
GAIN COEFF. (dBimW) - - - - - - - -
GAIN ( d 6 )
t
~
SIGNAL
I
1
-10 -
-20 ~
-30
-40 -
0 2 4 6 8 10
PUMP POWER (mW)
(C)
Fig. 4 . Amplifier gain, gain coefficient, and ASE power versus pump
power for an AI-silicate, Er’+-doped fiber amplifier (parameters listed in
Table I). Calculated from spatial model with uniformly doped Er’+ core
radius of (a) 0.6 pm, (b) 1.2 pm, and (c) 1.8 pm.
TABLE I
USED I N SPATIAL
FIBERPARAMETERS MODEL(FIGS.4 AND 5)
Pump Signal
Wavelength: A,, = 1480nm A, = 1550nm
Absorption coeff. a,,= 1 . 6 d B / m a, = 2 6 dB/m
Gain coeff. g: = 0.5 d B / m g: = 3 6 d B / m
Excess loss I,, = 0.03 d B / m (Fig. 4) I , = 0 03 d B / m (Fig 4)
= 0 d B / m (Fig. 5 ) = 0 d B / m (Fig 5 )
Absorption U - U,,, = 3 x 10 2 5 ? ? I 2
Input power P,,(O) = 0-10 mW (Fig. 4) P , ( O ) = 100 nW (Fig 4 )
= 0-5 mW (Fig. 5 ) = SO pW (Flg 5 )
Er3+ diffusing into the cladding. Larger b places ions in the low The optimum amplifier length for maximum gain can be cal-
intensity portion of the pump profile, causing the amplifier to culated from the spatial model. If the amplifier is too long, some
have a softer knee while approaching its peak gain. Also, the portion of the fiber will be pumped below the inversion thresh-
amplifier noise worsens slightly, especially in the backward di- old and reabsorb the signal. A short amplifier may absorb too
rection. However, for p,, > 5 mW, there is no substantial dif- little of the pump power. The optimum length Lopt increases
ference in the small-signal gain and noise power over the range with pump power and decreases with the signal power. Fig. 5
0.6 pm Ib 5 1.8 pm. Incidentally, by setting Avk = 0, one shows an example of the length dependence on pump power
finds that the threshold and peak-gain coefficient are unaffected calculated for a forward propagating signal in the absence of
by self saturation on the ASE, but it does slow down the ap- ASE. The optimum length is 0 m when the pump power is be-
proach to maximum gain for G 2 30 dB. low the threshold pump power to achieve transparency Prh =
216 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 9, NO. 2. FEBRUARY 1991
LENGTH (m) --- depend on the optical power in the fiber. Next, both sides of
GAIN COEFF. (dB/mW) the rate equations are integrated over the fiber core and divided
r G A l N (dB) - by the effective area, and from the definitions of rk,$.we find
-
3 C Pk(z)'~~krk,lnl C Pk(z)'ckrk,2n2
I
- - - 3,
(18)
dt k hv,ab& k hv, ab& 7
15
*O
3- If the erbium ions are well confined to the center of the optical
modes, then rk,I , r h , are
2 nearly equal and replaced with a sin-
2- 0
: I gle constant r,. In the Appendix, we show with a Gaussian
approximation to the optical mode, i, = ( 1 / a w 2 ) exp
5L
PUMP
1- -5 2 ( - r 2 / w 2 ) ,that rk,,vary with P , by less than 8 % f o r b < w,
1
4'
0 0 - -10 ' corresponding to < 0.6. After reducing the propagation
0 1 2 3 4 5
equations using the effective overlap integral, our equations of
PUMP POWER (mW) the spectrally resolved, spatially integrated model become
Fig. 5 . Amplifier gain, gain coefficient, and length versus pump power
calculated from spatial model with the length optimized to maximize
gain.
I- m]
I I I I I I l l 1 GAIN (dB)
INPUT Ps 1531 nm 1555 nm
~ = -20 dBm
NO FILTER
- l 5o
-1 FILTER
T1
U
-20 1
L -5
-1 0
-E
-15
LT
W
3 -20
B
1510 1520 1530 1540 1550 1560 1570
-25
WAVELENGTH (nm)
/
Fig. 6 . Spectrally resolved calculation of two-channel amplification in a --
-m I / / I I I I I I I I I
saturated amplifier. Forward (-) and backward ( - - - ) propagating 1510 1520 1530 1540 1550 1560 1570
ASE power spectra shown for 1-nm resolution.
WAVELENGTH (nm)
powers of the individual beams are obtained by solving (25) for L = 20m
QO"' and substituting it into (24).
For illustration, we apply this method to a high-efficiency
'i
amplifier fiber pumped at 1480 nm and amplifying a 1550-nm
signal. This is the same fiber used in the spatial model to obtain
Fig. 4(b). The saturation parameter was { = 1.5 X lOI5 m-'
s-I. First, a series of small-signal gain curves G(P,) are plot-
ted in Fig. 8(a) for amplifier lengths varied from 5 to 20 m, and 0 2 4 6 8 1 0
a constant input signal power of 100 nW. Comparing the 20-m PUMP POWER (mW)
amplifier calculation to Fig. 4(b) shows that this analytical
(a)
model is reasonably accurate for G 5 20 dB, before ASE sat-
urates the amplifier gain. 40
An alternative presentation of the amplifier gain is to plot it
as a function of length G ( L ) for constant input pump and signal 30
powers. These curves, plotted in Fig. 8(b), show that the opti-
mum length yielding the maximum gain, increases with pump
g 20
z
power. These curves become inaccurate for G 2 20 dB because 2 10
they do not include gain saturation by ASE. Next, gain satura-
0
tion at high output signal powers, is plotted in Fig. 8(c) for the
15-m long amplifier having pump powers of 1-10 mW. As ex- -10
pected, the saturated output power is proportional to the pump 0 10 20 30 40 50
AMPLIFIER LENGTH ( m )
power, and at large gain compression, nearly all of the pump
light is converted to signal. The last curve, Fig. 8(d), shows (b)
the pump power versus output signal power, for an amplifier
length L = 15 m and amplifier gains of 5-25 dB. These curves
help designers to determine the pump power needed for a spe-
cific amplifier gain and output signal power.
a 6-
tion written in integral form s; - 20
I
3
a
4-
2
- % / / /
15
<
2
00
1560
VIII. TEMPORAL
PROPERTIES
OF THE ERBIUMAMPLIFIER signals are weak and the pump emission cross iection is negli-
While all the models discussed to this point have been for gible, the normalized density fluctuation becomes
steady-state operating conditions, many applications use the er-
bium amplifier to amplify time-varying signals. It is well-known
that the long metastable lifetime and the energy-storage prop-
erties of the gain medium act to smooth out fluctuations in the
amplifier's operating point, leading to the success of these
steady-state models. However, WDM transmission, analog Or in the limit of p,, >> P$
CATV signal distribution, and high-power pulse amplification
may experience signal distortion and crosstalk in amplifiers, and
can only be analyzed by solutions of the time-dependent equa-
tions. Indeed, one of the first studies of the temporal properties
of the erbium amplifier resorted to the numerical solution of the and the dc response is
time-dependent rate and propagation equations [34].
For our purposes, we will examine the small-signal fre-
quency response of the gain medium to perturbations in the
pump or signal. This yields estimates of local gain fluctuations This shows that at low frequencies, the variation in gain A g k =
(T,k + aflk)An2 is in phase with pump fluctuations. We also
and of the limits of the validity of the steady-state models. Only rk(
the rate equation is used for this simple time-dependent prob- conclude that although the roll-off frequency increases with p,,,
lem. The optical power in the time-varying beam and the pop- the effects of pump noise is usually small and A g , << &. Sim-
ulation of the metastable level are expanded about their mean ilar analysis for a time-varying signal and CW pump yields.
value
P ,( t ) = p, + A p t exp j o t - -
>
tween high pump efficiency and coupling loss to transmission
0.6
fibers.
Spectral modeling is used to analyze gain saturation with
multiple signals and to analyze the ASE noise spectrum. Be-
cause the absorption and fluorescence spectra are different in ' 0
o'2 20 40b/w = 0.260 80 100
shape, the gain spectrum changes with amplifier inversion. Then
the spectral modeling is used to predict the effects of changing
P
signal and power levels on the amplifier gain and ASE spectra.
Fig. 1 1. Power-dependent overlap integral, ra,,for a Gaussian-mode ap-
This is important for wavelength-multiplexed lightwave sys-
proximation and an E r 3 + distribution of 0.2 Ib / w I 2.0.
tems that need to maintain equal gain for each channel. Spectral
modeling is also useful for studying the gain spectra of conca-
tenated amplifier systems and the gain bandwidth reduction in
multiple-stage amplifiers. and the mean density n , over the doped core is
Analytical methods for modeling the amplifier gain, gain sat-
uration, and noise have been described. Generally these are
solved knowing only a few fiber parameters; the absorption and
fluorescence (gain) spectra, and the ratio of the linear ion den-
sity to the metastable lifetime. Then only the amplifier length
and input optical powers are needed in order to solve for the
amplifier gain. Because the problem is reduced to solving a sin-
gle implicit equation, it is easy to formulate the problem to op- where
timize the amplifier design for pump efficiency and gain
saturation. Also since the equation is easy to solve, this type of
analytical model is suitable for a subprogram in a lightwave P=a. p k auk
system model that may require numerous amplifier calculations. The overlap integral r k , is calculated to be
Finally, analytical models describe the limiting performance
of amplifier gain saturation and noise. In cases where the pump
power is well above threshold, the conversion efficiency of r k , ,= &
n,
ir jm i,(n)n,(n)rdrd+
pump into signal, and the amplifier noise factor are given by
explicit equations. The effects of pump and signal wavelengths
on amplifier performance are easily visualized using these
models. This analysis, coupled with numerical and implicit an-
alytical methods, enables a systematic design and performance
study of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, including multisignal
amplification and ASE noise.
,
Note that in the limit of p + 0, rk, = 1 - e-bz/"", which is
equal to rk,,, the overlap integral between the optical mode and
APPENDIX the total ion population.
POWER-DEPENDENT
OVERLAPINTEGRALS ,
Fig. 11 is a plot of rk, versus the normalized optical power
The local densities of the metastable and ground levels of the for values of b/w between 0.2 and 2 . When b is much smaller
erbium ions depend upon the intensities of the pump and signal than w ,the optical intensity is nearly constant through the doped
,,
beams. Consequently, the overlap integrals rk, r k , Z of (17) region. Then the n , distribution is uniform inside the doped re-
are functions of the optical power, and the assumption of con- ,
gion and r k , is independent of the optical power. However, for
stant r kis not valid. We will check this for the case of a fiber b > w , i.e., rk,,> 0.6, significant changes are seen. This is
that is uniformly doped to radius b and use the Gaussian ap- shown more clearly in Fig. 12 which is a plot of F = 2 [ rk,I ( p
proximation to the optical mode profile ik = ( 1/*w2) exp = 0 ) - r k , I ( P -+ o o ) ] / [ r k . l ( p= 0 ) + r k . l ( P 0 3 ) 1 7 the
( -?/w2). Considering a single optical beam, with uek = 0, fractional change in the overlap integral over the pump range 0
the ground-state population from the steady-state rate equation Ip < W . From this, and similar results obtained for r k . 2 it
is looks that the constant-rk approximation, which is the basis of
the analytical models, can be applied with less than 8% error
in rkif b < w , r k < 0.6. Otherwise the spatial mode distri-
butions should be used to maintain the accuracy of the amplifier
hvk model.
282 JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 9, NO. 2 , FEBRUARY 1991
[40] J. R. Simpson et a l . , “A distributed erbium-doped fiber ampli- C. Randy Giles (M’88) wa*s born in Vancou-
fier,” Optical Fiber Conf. (San Francisco, CA), 1990, postdead- ver, Canada, on May 8, 1955. He received the
line paper PDP19. B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in physics from the
[41] J. L. Zyskind, D. J. DiGiovanni, J. W. Sulhoff, P. C. Becker, University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C., in 1976
and C. H. Brito Cruz, “High performance erbium-doped fiber and 1978, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree
amplifier pumped at 1.48 pm and 0.97 pm,” IEEE/LEOS Topical in electrical engineering from the University of
Meet. Optical Amplijiers (Monterey, CA), 1990, paper PDP6. Alberta, Edmonton, in 1983.
[42] E. Desurvire and J. R. Simpson, “Amplification of spontaneous From 1983 to 1983 he worked at Bell North-
emission in erbium-doped single-mode fibers,” J . Lightwave em Research, Canada, on high-speed light-
Technol., vol. 7, p. 835, 1989. wave systems and the modulation properties of
[43] A. A. M. Saleh, R. M. Jopson, J. D. Evankow, and J. Aspell, semiconductor lasers. In 1986 he joined AT&T
“Modeling of gain in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers,” ZEEE Pho- Bell Laboratories and has engaged in research on integrated-optic de-
ton. Technol. Lett., Oct. 1990. vices and fiber optical amplifiers.
[44] C. R. Giles and D. DiGiovanni, “Spectral dependence of gain Dr. Giles is a member of the Optical Society of America.
and noise in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers,” Photon. Technol.,
Lett., vol. 2, no. 11, pp. 797-800, 1990.
[45] M. Tachibana, R. I. Laming, P. R. Morkel, and D. N. Payne, *
“Gain-shaped erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) with broad
spectral bandwidth,” IEEEILEOS Topical Meet. Optical Ampli-
fiers (Monterey, CA), 1990, paper MDI. Emmanuel Desurvire (M’89) received the
[46] R. Olshansky, “Noise figure for erbium-doped optical fibre am- M.S. degree in physics in 1980 and the Di-
plifiers,” Electron. L e t t . , vol. 24, pp. 1363-1365, 1988. plBme d’Etudes Approfondies in theoretical
1471 J. R. Armitage, “Spectral dependence of the small-signal gain physics in 1981, from the University of Paris
around 1.5 pm in erbium doped silica fiber amplifiers,” ZEEE J . VI. In 1983, he received the Doctorat de Troi-
Quantum Electron., vol. 26, pp. 423-425, 1990. sitme Cycle in Physics from the University of
[48] M. Peroni and M. Tambumni, “Gain in erbium-doped fiber am- Nice, France. His doctoral work involved the
plifiers: A simple analytical solution to the rate equations,” Opt. study of Raman fiber amplifiers.
Lett., vol. 15, pp. 842-844, 1990. He then spent two years at a Postdoctoral Re-
[49] E. Desurvire, C. R. Giles, and J. R. Simpson, “Gain saturation search Affiliate at the E. L. Ginzton Labora-
effects in high-speed, multichannel erbium-doped fiber amplifiers tory, Stanford University, working on the
at =1.53 pm,” J . Lightwave TechnoZ., vol. 7, pp. 2095-2104, implementation of Raman amplification to recirculating fiber delay lines
1989. and reentrant fiber gyroscopes. From 1986 to 1990, he has been with
(501 K. Inoue, H. Toba, N. Shibata, K. Iwatsuki, and A. Takada, AT&T Bell Laboratories at Crawford Hill, NJ, working on erbium-
“Mutual signal gain saturation in Er3+-doped fibre amplifier doped fiber amplifiers and applications to optical communication sys-
around 1.54 p n wavelength,” Electron. L e t t . , vol. 25, pp. 594- tems He is now Associate Profesor in the Electrcal Engineenng De-
595, 1989. partment at Columbia University.