Abstract

The wide-band optical fiber amplifier is one of the most important devices for the next generation of large-capacity photonic networks, which is designed to provide several data-based broadband services. Several types of wide-band fiber amplifiers have already been reported. Tellurite-based Er-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA),¹ two gain band EDFAs,^2,3 and EDFA/Raman hybrid amplifiers⁴ have yielded gain bandwidths of up to about 80 nm with gains of more than 20 dB. Moreover, a discrete silica fiber Raman amplifier (FRA) have yielded a gain bandwidth of 85 nm with a gain of about 13 dB (on-off Raman gain of 25 dB).⁵ Recently, we reported a new type of wide-band amplifier, namely a tellurite fiber Raman amplifier, and achieved a very large gain bandwidth of 160 nm around 1.5 µm.⁶ This tellu-rite FRA has maximum and minimum gains of 20 and 10 dB respectively in the gain bandwidth. This made it necessary to flatten the gain spectrum of the tellurite FRA.

© 2002 Optical Society of America