Quenching investigation on new erbium doped fibers using MCVD nanoparticle doping process

Abstract

Ever demanding network implementations brought new requirements to be addressed to offer cost effective and power efficient solutions with smaller footprints. This general trend together with the constant need to improve L-band optical amplification efficiency account for the renewed interest on highly doped Erbium fibers. Erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) performance degradation with Er³⁺ concentration increase has extensively been studied1 and is attributed to additional losses due to energy transfers between neighbouring ions. Experimental observations have been interpreted by the homogeneous up-conversion (HUC) and pair-induced quenching (PIQ) models, which account for pump power penalty and unsaturable absorption respectively. For a given Er3+ concentration, studies have also showed that both fiber manufacturing process and core matrix composition have a strong impact on quenching parameters. In 2009, we introduced a new doping concept involving Al₂O₃Er nanoparticles (NP) in a MCVD-compatible process showing improved performances in terms of erbium homogeneity along the fiber length for standard doping levels.² In this paper, we address our most recent work on concentration quenching encountered in both standard and NP Erbium doped fibers.