US 12,149,039 B2
Wide gain bandwidth C-band optical fiber amplifier
Benyuan Zhu, Princeton, NJ (US)
Assigned to OFSFITEL, LLC, Norcross, GA (US)
Appl. No. 17/264,824
Filed by OFS Fitel, LLC, Norcross, GA (US)
PCT Filed Aug. 29, 2019, PCT No. PCT/US2019/048942
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 31, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/047339, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 5, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/725,029, filed on Aug. 30, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0296844 A1, Sep. 23, 2021
Int. Cl. H01S 3/067 (2006.01); H01S 3/094 (2006.01); H01S 3/16 (2006.01); H01S 3/30 (2006.01)
CPC H01S 3/06766 (2013.01) [H01S 3/06758 (2013.01); H01S 3/094046 (2013.01); H01S 3/1693 (2013.01); H01S 3/302 (2013.01); H01S 2301/04 (2013.01)] 24 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A fiber-based C-band optical amplifier comprising:
an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) module operating at a highly inverted level, the EDFA module including a section of erbium-doped optical fiber and a first laser pump source for supplying pump light with a power level sufficient to achieve a high inversion level, wherein one or more optical input signals propagating at wavelengths within the C-band spectral range through the EDFA module are amplified by the presence of pump light; and
a discrete Raman amplifier (DRA) module including a section of optical gain fiber for receiving as an input one or more optical signals propagating at wavelengths within the C-band range and a second laser pump source for supplying pump light to the section of optical gain fiber, the section of optical gain fiber having a length selected to maintain operation in a small gain regime of less than 7 dB, wherein a combination of the EDFA module and the DRA module provides a gain bandwidth of at least 42 nm within the C-band wavelength range of 1525-1573 nm.