Two-stage optical limiting fiber amplifier using a synchronized etalon filter

Abstract

We demonstrate a two-stage optical limiting erbium-doped fiber amplifier (OLA) using an interstage synchronized etalon filter and an isolator, The proposed OLA shows higher gain, lower noise figure, and wider dynamic range (> 30 dB) than conventional two-stage erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA's) with an interstage isolator, In addition, this OLA is well suited for the use in wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) networks since the synchronized etalon filter has multiple passbands at the standardized WDM wavelengths.