Performance comparison of various configurations of single-pump dispersion-compensating Raman/EDFA hybrid amplifiers

Abstract

We show experimental performance comparison of three types of single-pump highly efficient dispersion-compensating Raman/erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) hybrid amplifiers with respect to gain, noise figure (NF), and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS)-induced penalty: Raman/EDFA hybrid amplifiers recycling residual Raman pump in a cascaded erbium-doped fiber located either after (Type I) or prior to (Type II) a dispersion-compensating fiber, and a Raman assisted EDFA (Type III). Type I shows high small-signal gains, moderate large-signal gains, moderate NFs, and high SBS tolerances. Type II shows high small-signal gains, low NFs, and low SBS tolerances. Type III shows moderate small-signal gains, high large-signal gains, moderate NFs, and high SBS tolerances.