Design of Hybrid Optical Amplifiers for High Capacity Optical Transmission

This paper describes our design of a hybrid amplifier composed of a distributed Raman amplifier and erbium‐doped fiber amplifiers for C‐ and L‐bands. We characterize the distributed Raman amplifier by numerical simulation based on the experimentally measured Raman gain coefficient of an ordinary single mode fiber transmission line. In single channel amplification, the crosstalk caused by double Rayleigh scattering was independent of signal input power and simply given as a function of the Raman gain. The double Rayleigh scattering induced power penalty was less than 0.1 dB after 1000 km if the on‐off Raman gain was below 21 dB. For multiple channel amplification, using commercially available pump laser diodes and fiber components, we determined and optimized the conditions of three‐wavelength Raman pumping for an amplification bandwidth of 32 nm for C‐band and 34 nm for L‐band. After analyzing the conventional erbium‐doped fiber amplifier analysis in C‐band, we estimated the performance of the hybrid amplifier for long haul optical transmission. Compared with erbium‐doped fiber amplifiers, the optical signal‐to‐noise ratio was calculated to be higher by more than 3 dB in the optical link using the designed hybrid amplifier.