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IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics

Measurement and analysis of pump-dependent refractive index and dispersion effects in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers

Simon Fleming, Tim J. Whitley

Published Jul 1, 1996• 54 citations

Abstract

In a doped fiber, at wavelengths close to an absorption, the refractive index, and hence the dispersion, is expected to be a strong function of wavelength, as described by the Kramers-Kronig relationship. Furthermore, this spectral variation itself will be a function of pumping. This paper describes an accurate and sensitive experimental determination of the pump dependence of the refractive index in an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. A Mach-Zehnder interferometric measurement is described where only one arm is comprised of doped fiber. Particular attention is paid to accounting for the significant difference in power levels in the two arms and the effects of polarization and incoherent light. The measured refractive-index change matches well with that theoretically predicted. The pumped and unpumped dispersion of the amplifier are calculated. While the extra dispersion is of similar magnitude to that of silica fiber, the impact on long telecommunications systems is likely to be negligible. However, this extra dispersion may be important in shorter systems such as soliton lasers. Given the good agreement between theory and experiment, the variation of dispersion with fractional inversion is calculated from absorption and gain measurements. The presence of codopants is known to alter the absorption and emission spectra; the effect on the dispersion is calculated, and a near linear dependence on germanium concentration is observed.

DOI: 10.1109/3.517009

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Optical Fiber Communication Conference•Nov 27, 2002•7 citations

In a doped fiber, at wavelengths close to an absorption, the refractive index, and hence the dispersion, is expected to be a strong function of wavelength, as described by the Kramers-Kronig relationship. Furthermore, this spectral variation itself will be a function of pumping. This paper describes an accurate and sensitive experimental determination of the pump dependence of the refractive index in an erbium-doped fiber amplifier. A Mach-Zehnder interferometric measurement is described where only one arm is comprised of doped fiber. Particular attention is paid to accounting for the significant difference in power levels in the two arms and the effects of polarization and incoherent light. The measured refractive-index change matches well with that theoretically predicted. The pumped and unpumped dispersion of the amplifier are calculated. While the extra dispersion is of similar magnitude to that of silica fiber, the impact on long telecommunications systems is likely to be negligible. However, this extra dispersion may be important in shorter systems such as soliton lasers. Given the good agreement between theory and experiment, the variation of dispersion with fractional inversion is calculated from absorption and gain measurements. The presence of codopants is known to alter the absorption and emission spectra; the effect on the dispersion is calculated, and a near linear dependence on germanium concentration is observed.

A novel measurement system provides determination of pump induced phase shifts in erbium doped fibers with an accuracy of /spl sim//spl pi//20. Using this system, a systematical analysis of the pump induced modulation of the refractive index and dispersions for a signal at 1550 nm and a pump at 980 nm is reported. The analysis contains measurements of pump induced refractive index changes as function of wavelength, pump power, and doping concentration. A model taking account of the contribution to the refractive index changes from optical transitions between /sup 4/I/sub 15/2/ states and /sup 4/I/sub 13/2/ states in Er/sup 3+/ yields good agreement to experimental results apart from a wavelength independent offset. The offset is interpreted to originate from high energetic optical transitions. The results show that for a large refractive index modulation, a short and highly doped fiber should be used with limited amplified spontaneous emission effect. In optical communication systems comprising erbium doped fiber amplifiers, a tradeoff between dispersion and amplification must be made.

This paper reports the measurement and analysis of signal power-induced changes in the refractive index spectrum of an aluminosilicate erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). For a constant 980 nm pump power of 11 mW, a 1553 nm signal power of 4.6 mW caused a peak-to-trough change in refractive index of (3.8/spl plusmn/0.4)/spl times/10/sup -8/ across the EDFA gain spectrum. A Kramers-Kronig transform of the signal-induced change in absorption coefficient agreed well with the measured change in refractive index. This result conflicts with the behavior of the system predicted by a homogeneously broadened two-level model and suggests limitations in the representation of the Er/sup 3+/:glass system by a discrete set of homogeneously broadened transitions.

A study of the complex atomic susceptibility of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers operating near the 1.53- mu m transition (/sup 4/I/sub 13/2/-/sup 4/I/sub 15/2/) developed from a semiclassical theoretical description is presented. Expressions for the emission cross section sigma /sub e/( lambda ) and absorption cross section sigma /sub a/( lambda ) of erbium:glass as a quasi-three-level laser system with Stark-split sublevel manifolds are derived. The results are used to calculate the cross sections of aluminosilicate erbium-doped fibers at low temperatures (T=4.2, 77 K) and at room temperature. It is demonstrated that an expression for the gain coefficient of the fiber amplifier can be derived from the expression of the susceptibility. Using Kramers-Kronig relations, an expression for the refractive index change in the fiber is derived. The theoretical spectral gain profile of the fiber amplifier and concurrent refractive index changes are analyzed for different pumping regimes.>

We present a theory that enables us to account for the pump-induced change of refractive index in a rare-earth-doped fiber. Experimental results carried out on an erbium-doped fiber with cw pump and cw signal operation confirm the accuracy of this theory at the steady state. Both theoretical and experimental results show that significant index changes can be obtained for the order of 1–2 mW of cw optical pump or signal power. In addition we studied the transient dynamics of the resonance-enhanced refractive index in a wide range of pulse widths from millisecond to tens of femtoseconds. The result shows that a fast response of refractive-index changes is achievable since the effects of spontaneous emission and nonradiative decay are negligible in the short-pulse case.

Summary form only given. Recently it has been shown that small changes in pump wavelength within the 980-nm pump band change the shape of the gain spectrum of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). These gain variations can be as large as 3 dB in a typical line amplifier and cannot be explained by the well known homogeneous model for EDFAs. Pump-induced gain changes must be accounted for in multiwavelength amplifiers and systems operating over the pump-wavelength-sensitive short-wavelength portion of the erbium gain band. In this paper, we compare the impact of pump-mediated inhomogeneities on the gain spectra of EDFAs pumped in the 1480- and 980-nm pump bands. We find that the shape of the EDFA gain spectrum is less affected by changes in pump wavelength in the 1480-nm band, and show that in both cases the dynamic gain tilt function (DGTF) is relatively insensitive to changes in pump wavelength. The latter indicates that inversion-induced gain changes can be predicted from a (measured) DGTF despite pump band and some signal band inhomogeneities. We present fluorescence line narrowing measurements that explain these results and suggest a physical mechanism for 980-nm band pump-mediated inhomogeneities.