title: A 23-dB bismuth-doped optical fiber amplifier for a 1700-nm band.
abstract: It is now almost twenty-five years since the first Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) was demonstrated. Currently, the EDFA is one of the most important elements widely used in different kinds of fiber-optic communication systems. However, driven by a constantly increasing demand, the network traffic, growing exponentially over decades, will lead to the overload of these systems ("capacity crunch") because the operation of the EDFA is limited to a spectral region of 1530-1610 nm. It will require a search for new technologies and, in this respect, the development of optical amplifiers for new spectral regions can be a promising approach. Most of fiber-optic amplifiers are created using rare-earth-doped materials. As a result, wide bands in shorter (1150-1530 nm) and longer wavelength (1600-1750 nm) regions with respect to the gain band of Er-doped fibers are still uncovered. Here we report on the development of a novel fiber amplifier operating in a spectral region of 1640-1770 nm pumped by commercially available laser diodes at 1550 nm. This amplifier was realized using bismuth-doped high-germania silicate fibers fabricated by MCVD technique.
authors.affiliation: Fiber Optics Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 38 Vavilov str., Moscow 119333, Russia.
authors.forename: Sergei V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Firstov
authors.affiliation: Fiber Optics Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 38 Vavilov str., Moscow 119333, Russia.
authors.forename: Sergey V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Alyshev
authors.affiliation: Fiber Optics Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 38 Vavilov str., Moscow 119333, Russia.
authors.forename: Konstantin E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Riumkin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry of High-Purity Substances of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 49 Tropinin str., Nizhny Novgorod, 603600, Russia.
authors.forename: Vladimir F
authors.initials: VF
authors.lastname: Khopin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry of High-Purity Substances of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 49 Tropinin str., Nizhny Novgorod, 603600, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexey N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Guryanov
authors.affiliation: Fiber Optics Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 38 Vavilov str., Moscow 119333, Russia.
authors.forename: Mikhail A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Melkumov
authors.affiliation: Fiber Optics Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 38 Vavilov str., Moscow 119333, Russia.
authors.forename: Evgeny M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Dianov