Erbium-doped fiber power amplifiers with pump reflecting mirrors in the 800 nm band

The behavior of alumino-phosphate-silicate (APS) erbium-doped fiber power amplifiers (EDFAs) for various pump wavelengths, in the small signal and large signal regime, has been well studied with 800-nm-band pumping. It has already been shown that bidirectional pumping is more efficient, especially at shorter wavelengths, due to the presence of large excited state absorption (ESA). However, bidirectional pumping requires more components which can increase the complexity and cost of the system. In this work, a computer model was used to compare the performance of power EDFAs with a Bragg reflecting pump mirror etched at the output end of the fiber. For small pump powers (P/sub p/ approximately=10 mW) this configuration is better than bidirectional pumping, both for gain and noise figure. At large pump powers (P/sub p/ approximately=200 mW) the output signal powers are comparable and the noise figure is better for the configuration with the reflecting mirror.<>