Enhancement of pump conversion efficiency in preamplified L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifiers

A new configuration of L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) is presented here. The system contains a double-pass L-band EDFA and an optical preamplifier. Different from conventional preamplified double-pass L-band EDFA systems in which only the forward ASE of the preamplifier is re-used as an auxiliary pump, the new system recycles the backward ASE of the preamplifier as well. Two kinds of main L-band EDFAs are studied, both of which include a section of un-pumped erbium-doped fiber placed in a loop reflector. An improvement of up to 110% in pump conversion efficiency is demonstrated with the proposed recycling of the backward ASE, with respect to the system without recycling. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.