On the Effect of Low Temperatures on the Maximum Output Power of a Coherent Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier

Abstract

The influence of low temperatures on the performance of a high-power single-frequency fiber laser amplifier is evaluated with a numerical simulation. Cooling the fiber can allow to take advantage of both higher damping of the acoustic waves in the silica glass, and higher laser efficiency. We first report on the measurement of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) threshold in a silica fiber as a function of the temperature from 300 K down to 77 K. We then present the measurements of small-signal absorption and gain spectra of an erbium doped alumino-phosphosilicate fiber, at room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature. Based on these data, we derive a numerical study of the combined effects of cooling on the SBS threshold and the amplifier efficiency, and conclude on the interest of this technique for SBS limited high power Er doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA). The temperature increase caused by the pump laser in the fiber core is also addressed.

Polarimeter Optical Spectrum Analyzer

“…Multimode lasing has a variety of applications in the fields of sensing, spectroscopy, signal processing, and communication. Multimode lasing in the telecom band has been demonstrated by integrating Erbium doped fibers (EDF) cooled by liquid nitrogen into a fiber ring laser [64][65][66][67]. It has been recently proposed that EDF operating at low temperatures can be used for storing quantum information [68][69][70][71][72].…”

1480 nm Diode-Pumped Er3+:Yb3+ Co-Doped Phospho-Alumino-Silicate Fiber for Extending the L-Band Gain Up to 1625 nm

“…Beyond the zero-TDG coefficient point, gain increased as the temperature decreased. By cooling the fiber, the increase of σa at shorter wavelengths increased the pumping efficiency and the decrease of σa at longer wavelengths suppressed the Lband signal re-absorption, thus benefiting the gain at longer wavelengths [24]. According to Boltzmann's law, the Er ion populations were thermalized and de-populated to lower energy sub-levels at a lower temperature.…”