Novel Fiber Used in Amplifiers

Light amplifiers produced with a semiconductor-film-clad cylinder fiber developed at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and Dove Photonics of Rome, N.Y., threaten to challenge erbium-doped fiber amplifiers in telecommunications applications. The devices, which the researchers described in November at Photonics East in Boston, have a bandwidth 10 times as wide as erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, do not require input/output couplers and can be pumped with an LED array rather than a laser.

The research team constructed the demonstration amplifier from 4-mm-long segments of fiber with a layer of Cd₃P₂ at the core-cladding boundary. The device displayed gain of 7.1 dB at 1550 nm, but the team expects that the use of higher-quality glass and the inclusion of a pump optimization system will produce better results.