Abstract

Rare earth doped optical fibers have attractive features as a fiber laser, fiber sensor, optical amplifier and so on. Especially erbium doped fibers (EDF) have had much attention because of the high gain at 1.5 micron band which is important for long distance transmissions. So far, the high gain and the high saturation output have been pursued, however an erbium doped fiber with high gain efficiency should have other applications like a low-cost simple amplifier and active optical components. This paper describes an EDF with high gain, high gain efficiency and wide gain band. The fiber is applied to a simple and low-cost optical divider which can be used for dividing or tapping from the main line, for instance fiber backbone cable television.

© 1990 Optical Society of America