Objective
GAIN studies and develops a family of optical fibre amplifiers, operating in all established telecommunications windows and therefore relevant to all application sectors.
The research concerns the realization of a family of fundamentally important components (namely optical fibre amplifiers) operating in all established telecommunications windows and therefore relevant to all applications sectors. The research covers fibre amplifiers for applications across the optical spectrum, based on rare earth doped glass structures. Parts of this project aimed to improve the attributes of third window erbium doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) and to extend the benfits of fibre amplifiers to the more commonly used 1300 nm window, which forms the current basic broadband main network infrastructure. The research also addresses the feasibility of amplifying fibres in other spectral regions, particularly at 800 nm, for local area networks (LAN) and computer interconnects.
Fluoride glasses have been developed which are capable of acting as a good host material for the fabrication of single mode fibres (SMF) doped with rare earth ions in the core region. Active fibres, based on fluorozirconate glass (ZBLAN), doped with erbium, praseodymium or thulium have been drawn, characterized and used in amplification experiments in all windows. Based on these achievements, prototyope amplifiers at 0.8 um, 1.3 um and 1.5 um have been specified and fabricated. The associated engineering studies have yielded original technical solutions, such as a reliable jointing technique, allowing the low loss coupling of high numerical aperture fluoride fibres with conventional silica fibres.
The practicality of amplification in the first window has been demonstrated. In LANs, where distances are small and splitting losses high, the thulium doped fluoride fibre amplifiers offer good performance for potentially low cost. The availability of fibre amplifiers operating in the second window offers a serious alternative for the upgrading at 2.5 or 10 Gbits/s of the enormous installed fibre base, as well as for the development of future FTL systems. The demonstrated feasibility of flat gain amplification over a 25 nm range in the third window strengthens the concepts of transparent multiwavelength networks.
The study will cover fibre amplifiers based on rare-earth doped glass structures. GAIN aims to improve the attributes of third-window EDFA's, and to extend the benefits of fibre amplifiers to the more commonly-used 1300 nm window, which forms the current basic broadband main network infrastructure. It also addresses the feasibility of amplifying fibres at 800 nm - for LANs and computer interconnects.
Key Issues
- Amplifier prototypes for the three telecommunications windows at 0.8 um, 1.3 um and 1.5 um.
- Performance evaluation of these amplifier prototypes by laboratory systems' testbed experiments.
- Network impact analysis.
Expected Impacts
The project achievements are expected to have a large impact on the future developments of optical networks:
- The practicality of amplification in the first window has been demonstrated: in LANs, where distances are small and splitting losses high, the Tm-doped fluoride fibre amplifiers offer good performance for potentially low cost.
- The availability of fibre amplifiers operating in the second window offers a serious alternative for the upgrading at 2.5 or 10 Gbit/s of the enormous installed fibre base, as well as for the development of future FTL systems.
- The demonstrated feasibility of flat-gain amplification over a 25 nm range in the third window strengthens the concepts of Transparent Multiwavelength Networks.
Fields of science
Topic(s)
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Coordinator
91460 Marcoussis
France
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Participants (10)
IP1 5PB Ipswich
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IP5 7RE Ipswich
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22301 Lannion
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92225 Bagneux
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10148 Torino
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Madrid Spain
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48013 Bilbao
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35042 Rennes
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SO17 1BJ Southampton
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50009 Zaragossa
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