High Power-Efficiency, Low DMG Cladding-Pumped Few-Mode Er/Yb/P Co-Doped Fiber Amplifier for Mode Division Multiplexing
Qiang Qiu, Zhimu Gu, Le He, Yang Chen, Yang Lou, Xinyue Zhao, Xiaoke Yin, Wenzhen Li, Shaokun Liu, Jinggang Peng, Haiqing Li, Yingbin Xing, Yingbo Chu, Nengli Dai, Jinyan Li
Abstract
Mode division multiplexing (MDM) is considered to be an efficient solution to alleviate the exponentially increasing “capacity crunch”. Here, we numerically and experimentally demonstrate a high power-efficiency, low differential mode gain (DMG) few-mode amplifier based on an M-type double-cladding Er/Yb co-doped phosphosilicate fiber. With a large-signal power of 4.1 dBm, the average DMG of <1.5 dB and the maximum gain of >28 dB were achieved for the LP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">01</sub> , LP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sub> , LP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">21,</sub> and LP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">02</sub> mode groups over the 1535–1565 nm range. Additionally, the saturation output power was measured in excess of 35 dBm, with a pump conversion efficiency (PCE) of >31%. This cladding-pumped few-mode Er/Yb co-doped fiber amplifier enables combined mode-division and wavelength-division multiplexed over large-capacity long-haul MDM transmission.