Relaxation oscillations and spectral hole burning in laser automatic gain control of EDFAs

Abstract

Gain control to limit fast power transients in optical networks arising from optical amplifier cross saturation is a key issue related to wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks. Here we consider the applicability of laser automatic gain control (AGC) to control fast power transients in optical networks and report the first high resolution measurements of transients in such gain-controlled erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs).