Er3+-Er3+ interaction effects and performance evaluation of Erbium Doped Fiber amplifiers

High quantum efficiency is required with short length of Erbium Doped Fiber (EDF). This is usually achieved by using highly doped fibers. However, the increasing dopant concentrations degrade the performance of the EDFA due to ion-ion interaction effects such as Homogeneous Upconversion (HUC) and Inhomogeneous Upconversion (IUC). In this paper, the performance of EDFA is simulated for different Er³⁺ doping concentrations. Performance degradation of the EDFA due to HUC/IUC and their combined effects are also studied. Simulation results show that IUC is the dominating factor for the performance degradation of the EDFA.