Axial Seamount on the Juan de Fuca Ridge is a site of ongoing volcanic activity. The vertical component of the deformation can be observed with ambient seawater pressure gauges, which have excellent short-term resolution. However, pressure gauge drift adds additional and significant uncertainty in estimates of long-period deformation; drift rates equivalent to 20-30 cm/yr have been observed. One way to circumvent gauge drift is to make differential pressure measurements relative to a distant and presumably stable seafloor reference site. Such measurements require a remotely operated vehicle and can only be made infrequently. Another approach is to incorporate a piston gauge calibrator in the seafloor pressure recorder to generate an in situ reference pressure that, when periodically applied to the drift-susceptible gauge, can be used to determine and remove gauge drift from the time series. We constructed a self-calibrating pressure recorder and deployed it at Axial Seamount in September 2013. The drift-corrected record from that deployment revealed an uplift of the volcano summit of 60 cm over 17 months.

A Nd³⁺ fiber amplifier with gain from 1376 nm to 1466 nm is demonstrated. This is enabled by a wavelength selective waveguide that suppresses amplified spontaneous emission between 850 nm and 1150 nm. It is shown that while excited state absorption (ESA) precludes net gain below 1375 nm with the exception of a small band from 1333 nm to 1350 nm, ESA diminishes steadily beyond 1375 nm allowing for the construction of an efficient fiber amplifier with a gain peak at 1400 nm and the potential for gain from 1375 nm to 1500 nm. A peak small signal gain of 13.3 dB is measured at 1402 nm with a noise figure of 7.6 dB. Detailed measurements of the Nd³⁺ emission and excited state absorption cross sections suggest the potential for better performance in improved fibers. Specifically, reduction of the fiber mode field diameter from 10.5 µm to 5.25 µm and reduction of the fiber background loss to <10 dB/km at 1400 nm should enable construction of an E-band fiber amplifier with a noise figure < 5 dB and a small signal gain > 20 dB over 30 nm of bandwidth. Such an amplifier would have a form factor and optical properties similar to current erbium fiber amplifiers, enabling modern fiber optic communication systems to operate in the E-band with amplifier technology similar to that employed in the C and L bands.

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