Fusion splicing photonic crystal fibers and conventional single-mode fibers: Microhole collapse effect, J Lightwave Technol 25 (2007), 3563-3574. 21. B.D. Tiburcio, G.M. Fernandes, and A.N. Pinto, Extremely smallcore photonic crystal fiber fusion splicing with a single-mode fiber, ABSTRACT: The advent of erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) has revolutionized optical communication in the past few decades. Traditionally, it was being used with relatively high bitrates system for amplification in the optical domain. The slow gain response of EDFA is inherently resistant to transient effects from bit rate and duty cycle variations in high bit rate optical systems. We investigate the transient effects of EDFA on low bitrate systems with variable duty cycle and pump power configurations. Also, the effect of transients in WDM multirate systems has been investigated. The work is supported with both simulation and experimental results. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:352-356, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com.