Amplification and noise properties of an erbium-doped multicore fiber amplifier

TLDR

Pump and signal light were coupled into each core of the MC‑EDF via two low‑loss tapered fiber bundled couplers. The amplifier achieved an average core gain of 30 dB with a noise figure below 4 dB, yielding a net useful gain of 23–27 dB after passive losses, while pump‑induced ASE noise transfer between neighboring cores was negligible.

Abstract

A multicore erbium-doped fiber (MC-EDF) amplifier for simultaneous amplification in the 7-cores has been developed, and the gain and noise properties of individual cores have been studied. The pump and signal radiation were coupled to individual cores of MC-EDF using two tapered fiber bundled (TFB) couplers with low insertion loss. For a pump power of 146 mW, the average gain achieved in the MC-EDF fiber was 30 dB, and noise figure was less than 4 dB. The net useful gain from the multicore-amplifier, after taking into consideration of all the passive losses, was about 23-27 dB. Pump induced ASE noise transfer between the neighboring channel was negligible.