Gain saturation spectrum of backward-pumped broad-band Raman amplifiers

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 17; no. 7; pp. 1405 - 1407
• Main Authors: Vorreau, P., Kilper, D.C., White, C.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.07.2005; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Amplification; Amplifiers; Camber; Channels; Distributed amplifiers; Gain; Gain measurement; Optical amplifiers; optical communications; optical fiber amplifiers; Optical pumping; Optical saturation; Optical scattering; Power amplifiers; pumps; Raman scattering; Saturation; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Spectra; Stimulated emission; Tilt; Wavelength division multiplexing; Wavelength measurement; wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2005.848404

The gain saturation of optical amplifiers due to changes in wavelength-division-multiplexed channel loading is characterized using a technique that determines the saturation effect on each channel. This channel gain saturation (CGS) measurement is applied to a broad-band backward-pumped Raman amplifier and used to study how the CGS spectral tilt is controlled by the relative contributions of the pump-to-pump and channel-to-channel interactions. The CGS is also used to measure the gain dependence on the channel add-delete pattern.