Optical Fiber Amplifier

Optical fiber amplifier (OFA) is an optical amplifier that uses optical fiber as the gain medium. It is mainly used in optical fiber communication lines. It also has real-time, high gain, online, low noise, low loss, etc. while amplifying the optical signal. Light amplification function.

Fiber Amplifier Classification

Fiber amplifiers are mainly classified according to the amplification technology they use, including EDFA (erbium doped fiber amplifier), PDFA (praseodymium doped fiber amplifier), and NDFA (niobium doped fiber amplifier).

EDFA erbium-doped fiber amplifier is mainly composed of erbium-doped fiber (EDF), pump source, coupler, optical isolator and optical filter. It has the characteristics of high gain, wide frequency band and low noise. It is the mainstream fiber amplifier on the market. The EDFA erbium-doped fiber amplifier plays an important role in promoting the development of dense wavelength division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, optical soliton fiber communication, fiber local network and fiber broadband integrated service data network.
 

How fiber amplifiers work?

The fiber amplifier mainly uses the active medium to excite and amplify the optical signal. The mainstream EDFA erbium-doped fiber amplifier uses the erbium-doped fiber (EDF) as the active medium, and most of the pump light can be grounded when it is input into the EDF. The Er3+ is pumped to the excited state, and the excited state of Er3+ is transferred to the metastable state rapidly and without radiation. Since the average residence time of Er3+ on the metastable state is 10ms, it is easy to be in the metastable state and the ground state. The number of particles is reversed. At this time, the signal photons pass through the erbium-doped fiber, and under the action of the stimulated radiation, a large number of photons are completely identical to themselves, which causes the signal.photons to increase rapidly, and can be continuously amplified at the output end. Optical signal.