Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers at 1550 nm Pumped with 800 nm Laser Diodes

We are developing erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) for optical communication systems, local area networks, fiber sensors and optical measuring instruments. The EDFA is a new and revolutionary technology that is having a profound effect on the design of lightwave system architectures and other applications. Never has a technology blossomed as fast as the EDFA: it went from a twinkle in the eye to a laboratory curiosity to a practical solution to a commercial product in a 2-3 year time span; a true phenomenon. With an EDFA, the loss in any optical system is no longer a constraint and it can be used as a power amplifier and/or preamplifier to increase loss budget and splitting ratio. We will use semiconductor laser diodes in the 800 nm band as the optical pumps and develop EDFA modules which are much cheaper (<$10K) and more reliable (20) years than modules available today. The EDFA will do the same for fiber optics and photonics what the transistor did for electronics.