Experimental investigation of the performance of co- and counter-pumped Raman fiber amplifiers

• Published in: Microwave and optical technology letters Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 190 - 194
• Main Authors: Xiangjun, Xin, Chongxiu, Yu, Jianhua, Ren, Anjian, Li, Qiang, Wu, Yu, Xin, Chuanlin, Wang, Wenxiao, Zheng, Shuangchen, Ruan, Geguo, Du, Xiaoqiang, Yang, Gang, Xin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 05.05.2003
• Subjects: gain saturation; on-off gain; optical signal-noise ratio; pump power conversion efficiency; Raman fiber amplifier
• ISSN: 0895-2477; 1098-2760
• DOI: 10.1002/mop.10864

Gain, gain saturation, optical signal‐to‐noise ratio (OSNR), and pump power conversion efficiency (PCE) of co‐ and counter‐pumped Raman fiber amplifiers (RFAs) are investigated and compared experimentally in this paper. Results show that obvious OSNR improvement can be achieved with co‐pumped RFAs. Compared with the counter‐pumped scheme, the co‐pumped solution has more severe gain saturation. PCE decreases as the input power increases for both pumping schemes, however, PCE decreases faster for the co‐pumped RFAs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 37: 190–194, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.10864