The Role of Optical Amplifiers in Optical Fiber Communication
B. Bala Subbanna1, L.P. Divya Meenakshi2
1B.Bala Subbanna, M.E, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Debremarkos University, Ethiopia, Andhrapradesh, India.
2L.P. Divya Meenakshi, M. Tech, Assistant Professor, Mits, Madanapalli. Andhrapradesh, India.
Manuscript received on March 12, 2013. | Revised Manuscript received on April 15, 2013. | Manuscript published on April 30, 2013. | PP: 730-733 | Volume-2, Issue-4, April 2013. | Retrieval Number: D1579042413/2013©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: An optical amplifier is a device that amplifies an opticalsignal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. An optical amplifier may be thought of as a laser without an optical cavity, or one in which feedback from the cavity is suppressed. Optical amplifiers are important in optical communication and laser physics. There are several different physical mechanisms that can be used to amplify a light signal, which correspond to the major types of optical amplifiers. In doped fiber amplifiers and bulk lasers, stimulated emission in the amplifier’s gain medium causes amplification of incoming light. In semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), electron-holerecombination occurs. In Raman amplifiers, Raman scattering of incoming light with phonons in the lattice of the gain medium produces photons coherent with the incoming photons. Parametric amplifiers use parametric amplification. Almost any laser active gain medium can be pumped to produce gain for light at the wavelength of a laser made with the same material as its gain medium. Such amplifiers are commonly used to produce high power laser systems. Special types such as regenerative amplifiers and chirped-pulse amplifiers are used to amplify ultra-short pulses.
Keywords: Amolifier, EDFA, SOA.