Method and apparatus for stabilizing a high-gain, high-power single polarization EDFA
US6831779B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 27, 2001 |
| Grant date | Dec 14, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 27, 2021 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S2301/04
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A high-gain, saturated output, double-pass, fault-tolerant optical amplifier has an extended range of stability, output power, and efficiency and fall back modes of operation. The optical amplifier is typically configured in a two-stage polarization maintaining configuration, employing erbium-doped fibers as the gain media in both of the stages. At least one optical element in a loss-insensitive region of the amplifier can have a loss substantially higher than optical elements in the gain paths outside of the loss-insensitive region without substantially reducing the overall output power and efficiency of the amplifier. These elements can influence the amplified signal waveform, spectrum, signal-to-noise ratio, or subsequent performance in an optical network, as well as amplifier characteristics, such as output power, stability, efficiency, and reliability. The optical amplifier is suitable for both free-space and fiber optic network applications.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.