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Raman Amplifiers

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Definition: amplifiers based on Raman gain

A Raman amplifier is an optical amplifier based on Raman gain, which results from the effect of stimulated Raman scattering. The Raman-active medium is usually an optical fiber, although it can also be a bulk crystal, or a cell with a gas or liquid medium. An input signal can be amplified while co- or counterpropagating with a pump beam, the wavelength of which is typically a few tens of nanometers shorter. For silica fibers, maximum gain is obtained for a frequency offset of ∼10 to 15 THz between pump and signal, depending on the core composition.

For application in telecom systems, fiber Raman amplifiers compete with erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. Compared with those, their typical features are:

Fibers used for Raman amplifiers are not doped with rare-earth ions. In principle, any ordinary single-mode fiber could be used, and in practice the transmission fibers themselves are often suitable (→ distributed amplifiers). However, there are special fibers with increased Raman gain, resulting from certain dopants (e.g. germania) for enhanced Raman cross sections, or simply from a small effective mode area. Such fibers are used for lumped Raman amplifiers, where a shorter piece of fiber is dedicated to amplification only.

Bibliography

[1]R. H. Stolen and E. P. Ippen, "Raman gain in glass optical waveguides", Appl. Phys. Lett. 22, 276 (1973)
[2]A. J. Stentz, "Applications of Raman lasers and amplifiers in fiber communication systems", Proc. SPIE 3263, 91 (1998)
[3]Y. Emori et al., "100 nm bandwidth flat-gain Raman amplifiers pumped and gain-equalized by 12-wavelength-channel WDM laser diode unit", Electron. Lett. 35, 1355 (1999)
[4]S. A. E. Lewis et al., "Gain and saturation characteristics of dual-wavelength-pumped silica-fiber Raman amplifiers", Electron. Lett. 35, 1178 (1999)
[5]D. Bayart et al., "Broadband optical fiber amplification over 17.7 THz range", Electron. Lett. 36, 1569 (2000)
[6]V. E. Perlin and H. G. Winful, "Optimal design of flat-gain wide-band fiber Raman amplifiers", J. Lightwave Technol. 20 (2), 250 (2002)
[7]O. Boyraz and B. Jalali, "Demonstration of 11 dB fiber-to-fiber gain in a silicon Raman amplifier", IEICE Elect. Expr. 1, 429 (2004)
[8]B. Jalali, "Raman-based silicon photonics", IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 12 (3), 412 (2006)
 [9]G. P. Agrawal, "Nonlinear Fiber Optics", Academic Press, 4th edition, 2006
[10]ITU standard G.665 (01/05), "Generic characteristics of Raman amplifiers and Raman amplified subsystems"

See also: Raman scattering, Raman lasers, Raman gain, amplifiers, fiber amplifiers, fibers, nonlinearities, noise figure

Categories: amplifiers, communications, fibers and other waveguides, nonlinear optics

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