20 dBm output power balanced optical amplifier module

A novel and efficient balanCed optical amplifier (BOA) configuration is proposed. In this technique the four ports of an erbium fibre multiplexer are used to combine signal and pump in a symmetric fashion, providing dual pumping while preventing pump crosstalk. The use of the BOA design in a 980 nm pumped erbium doped fibre power booster packaged module is demonstrated. Furthermore, tests of a +20 dBm output BOA as a power amplifier in a 5 Gbit/s transmission experiment result in successful bit error rate measurements through 86 km of nondispersion shifted fibre