L-band erbium-doped fibre amplifier with clamped- and flattened-gain using FBG

A gain clamped long wavelength band erbium-doped fibre amplifier (L-band EDFA) based on a ring laser cavity is demonstrated using a fibre Bragg grating (FBG) at the output end of the amplifier. This new design provides a good gain clamping as well as a gain flattening. The gain is clamped at 16.9 dB with gain variation of less than 0.1 dB from input signal power of -40 to -18 dBm by setting the VOA=5 dB. Also, the amplifier has the flattest gain spectrum at VOA=5. The gain variation is less than 1.0 dB within the wavelength range from 1570 to 1600 nm. This gain clamped amplifier also can support a 12 channel WDM system.