Abstract

With the move toward higher-bit-rate communications, optical amplifiers are becoming increasingly attractive because of their large bandwidths (in excess of 100 GHz). Semiconductor laser amplifiers and Raman amplifiers have received considerable attention over the past few years.^1,2 At the last OFC we demonstrated a new technique for optical amplification³ based on an active erbium-doped optical fiber.⁴ The fiber amplifier requires a pump power of a few tens of milliwatts and can be spliced directly into optical fiber systems.

© 1988 Optical Society of America