Clément Romano

Simulation and design of a multistage 10W thulium-doped double clad silica fiber amplifier at 2050nm

A careful comparison of experiment and theory is important both for basic research and systematic engineering design of Thulium fiber amplifiers operating in the 2 μm region for applications such as LIDAR or spectroscopy (e.g. CO2 atmospheric absorption at 2051.4 nm). In this paper we report the design and performance of a multistage high-power PM Tm-doped fiber amplifier, cladding pumped at 793 nm. The design is the result of a careful comparison of numerical simulation, based on a three level model including ion-ion interactions, and experiment. Our simulation model is based on precise measurements of the cross sections and other parameters for both 6 and 10 μm core diameter fibers. Good agreement for several single and multistage amplifier topologies and operating conditions will be presented. Origins of the difference between theory and experiment are discussed, with emphasis on the accuracy of the cross sections and the cross relaxation parameters. Finally based on our simulation tool, we will demonstrate a design with an output power greater than 10 W for a multistage amplifier with a single-frequency signal at 2050 nm. The power stage was constructed with a 6 μm active fiber showing a 64 % optical slope efficiency. The output power is found to be within 5 % of the simulated results and is limited only by the available launched pump power of ~24 W. No stimulated Brillouin scattering is observed at the highest output power level for an active fiber well thermalized.

5W 1950nm Brillouin-free efficient single clad TDFA

We report the performance of a two stage single clad (SC) Thulium-doped fiber amplifier (TDFA), delivering an output power of 5 W at 1952 nm without stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) for a single-frequency input signal. A slope efficiency greater than 60 %, a signal gain greater than 60 dB and an input dynamic range > 30 dB are achieved. The amplifier topology was optimized with a modelization tool of the SC TDFA performance: experimental results and simulations are in good agreement.

Multistage single clad 2 micron TDFA with a shared L-band pump source

We report the experimental performance and simulation of a multiwatt two-stage TDFA using an L-band (1567 nm) shared pump source. We focus on the behavior of the amplifier for the parameters of output power Pout, gain G, noise figure NF, signal wavelength λs, and dynamic range. We measure the spectral performance of the TDFA for three specific wavelengths (λs= 1909, 1952, and 2004 nm) chosen to cover the low-, mid-, and upper-wavelength operating regions of the wideband amplifier. We also compare the performance of the two-stage shared pump TDFA with a one stage shared pump amplifier. Experimental results are in good agreement with simulation.

20-W 1952-nm tandem hybrid single and double clad TDFA

A simple engineering design is important for achieving high Thulium-doped amplifier (TDFA) performance such as good power conversion, low noise figure (NF), scalable output power, high gain, and stable operation over a large dynamic range. In this paper we report the design, performance, and simulation of two stage high-power 1952 nm hybrid single and double clad TDFAs. The first stage of our hybrid amplifier is a single clad design, and the second stage is a double clad design. We demonstrate TDFAs with an output power greater than 20 W with single-frequency narrow linewidth (i.e. MHz) input signals at both 1952 and 2004 nm. An optical 10 dB bandwidth of 80 nm is derived from the ASE spectrum. The power stage is constructed with 10 μm core active fibers showing a maximum optical slope efficiency greater than 50 %. The experimental results lead to a 1 dB agreement with our simulation tool developed for single clad and double clad TDFAs. Overall this hybrid amplifier offers versatile features with the potential of much higher output power.