Silica-based broadband fiber amplifiers

Summary form only given. Silica-based fibers and erbium-doped silica-based fiber amplifiers (EDSFAs) are a mainstay of present fiber-optic communication systems because of their excellent properties. Few hosts come close to matching the ease of manufacture, mechanical properties, environmental reliability, and optical properties of silica. Of great significance in erbium is the fact that phonon energies in many hosts, such as the erbium-doped fluoride-based fiber amplifier (EDFFA), lead to inefficient pumping by 980-nm pumps, where low noise figures (NFs) are achieved.