High gain efficiency amplifier based on an erbium doped aluminosilicate holey fiber

This paper was published in Optics Express and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-12-15-3452.We demonstrate an optical amplifier based on an erbium doped holey fiber (EDHF) with a small core. Owing to the high NA, which is readily achievable using holey fiber technology, and the tight physical confinement of the erbium ions, we show that it is possible to achieve an internal gain efficiency of >8.5dB/mW using an aluminosilicate based glass within the core. The dependence of the gain and noise figure performance with respect to fiber length and wavelength are experimentally characterized.K. Furusawa, T. Kogure, T. M. Monro, and D. J. Richardso