Abstract

Incorporating metal ions into low loss optical waveguides to form active fibers holds the promise of evolving a family of useful devices ranging from lasers to optical isolators, switches and sensors. However, the application which underlies most of the developmental effort in active fibers today is wideband amplification of optical signals in telecommunications systems. It has long been the hope of system designers to bypass the need for detection, electronic amplification, and retransmission of optical data at repeater stations and distribution points by using entirely optical amplification.

© 1987 Optical Society of America