Experimental investigation of bidirectional hybrid fiber amplifiers in a recycling-pump mechanism

A bidirectional hybrid fiber amplifier is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It is composed of a C-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and an L-band Raman fiber amplifier (RFA). A single-wavelength pump source is used to pump both the EDFA and the RFA. Using 500 mW pump power at 1595 nm, the average gains are 11.35 dB for the EDFA and 10.08 dB for the RFA, respectively, with a launched signal power of -10 dBm. The power penalties are less than 0.38 and 0.88 dB, respectively, for 50 and 75 km unidirectional and bidirectional transmission. © 2012 by Astro, Ltd