Fibers for multi-channel erbium doped amplifiers in optical space communications

Abstract

A fiber developed for optical satellite communications and control, designed to take full advantage of the photo-annealing effect that results from pumping in the 980nm region and allows up to 100% recovery following radiation damage.

Radiation tolerant passive and active optical fiber products for use in space environments

“…Traditional Erbium Doped Fiber (EDF) has generally been considered inappropriate for use in high radiation environments due to the poor response of their dopants to radiation. To combat this, the new range of AstroGain™ EDF uses a modified dopant structure which encourages a fast photo-annealing recovery of radiation induced point defects, which continually restores the fiber's performance as it is being used [10].…”

“…Each sample was then cut to a length equivalent to 80dB of 1531nm peak absorption and deployed into the EDFA configuration shown in Fig. 1 in order to measure their photo-annealing response to a standard pump regime in the 980nm region [10]. The EDFA setup was seeded over four channels: 1536.61nm, 1541.35nm, 1550.92nm and 1552.52nm and pumped continuously over several days at 974nm with a pump power of 175mW at the fiber input.…”

Investigation to find optimal modulation format for low power inter-satellite optical wireless communication (LP-IsOWC)

“…Amplification of optical signal is recommended for compromising low input power [8]. Erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) is recommended for optical inter-satellite communication but it need pumping power to operate and work efficiently with a high power laser [9] while semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is of very small size and it can operate with a low power laser [10]. So, the optical signal power is pre-amplified utilizing travelling wave SOA employed as booster amplifier.…”