S-band light sources using erbium-doped fiber with depressed cladding

Abstract

A source that employs an Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) for generating light in an S-band of wavelengths. The EDFA uses a fiber having a core with a core cross section surrounded by a depressed cladding with a depressed cladding cross section and a secondary cladding with a secondary cladding cross section. A pump source is provided for pumping the Erbium contained in the core of the fiber to a high relative inversion D, such that the Erbium exhibits positive gains in the S-band and high gains in a long wavelength band longer than the S-band. The core cross-section, the depressed cladding cross-section, and the refractive indices no, n1, and n2 are selected to produce losses at least comparable to the high gains in the long wavelength band and losses substantially smaller than the positive gains in the S-band. The source uses the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) produced by the EDFA to generate broadband light and/or narrowband light with the aid of a wavelength selecting mechanism that selects an output wavelength of the light within the ASE emission spectrum of the EDFA.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.