High-power single-polarization EDFA with wavelength-multiplexed pumps

Summary form only given. We present a two-stage, double-pass polarization-maintaining Er-doped fiber amplifier (PM-EDFA) with a high saturated output power (Psat) composed of reliable, commercially available components. The high output power is achieved by multiplexing four pump lasers together with polarization-insensitive dense WDM fused tapered couplers. The pump diode laser wavelengths ranged from 970-985 nm, with a 5-nm separation. At the recommended operating current, the nominal power of each pump before the WDM combiner was 90 mW and the output pump power from each set of four combined pump lasers was 330 mW.