TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a fiber-optic amplifier.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A fiber-optic amplifier of this type is known from the print publication "ECOC '89", Fifteenth European Conference on Optical Communication, Sep. 10-14, 1989, Gothenburg, Sweden, Proceedings, Vol. 1, Regular Papers TuA 5-7, pages 86-89. In this amplifier, the light radiated by a pump source and the light arriving from the signal light of the transmission line are combined in a pump coupler and are jointly transferred to an active length of fiber. However, the active length of fiber usually shows mode field diameters different from those of the pump coupler and the standardized optical waveguides of the incoming and outgoing transmission lines. For this reason, attenuation losses arise at the splices between the different optical waveguides, for both the pump light and the signal light.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The term "standardized optical waveguides" is used here to designate single-mode fibers, such as are conventionally used in optical systems of public communications engineering.

The invention is based on the task of creating a fiber-optic amplifier with improved efficiency. This problem is solved according to the invention by a fiber-optic amplifier consisting of a multiport pump coupler, a pump source connected to a first port of the pump coupler, and a doped length of fiber connected to another port of the pump coupler, the free end of the doped length of fiber and a further port of the pump coupler serving to connect the latter to optical transmission lines formed by standard optical waveguides, wherein the pump coupler is fabricated from a fiber whose mode field diameter for the pump light is adapted to the mode field diameter of the doped length of fiber. A further solution of the problem underlying the invention is a fiber-optic amplifier consisting of a multiport pump coupler, a pump source connected to a first port of the pump coupler, and a doped length of fiber connected to another port of the pump coupler, the free end of the doped length of fiber and a further port of the pump coupler serving to connect the latter to optical transmission lines formed by standard optical waveguides, wherein the arm of the pump coupler connected, on the one hand, to the pump source and, on the other hand, to the doped length of fiber, is formed by a fiber whose mode field diameter is adjusted to that of the doped length of fiber, and that the arm of the pump coupler serving to connect the incoming transmission line is formed by a fiber having a inner cladding region whose refractive index is adjusted to that of the outer cladding region of the fiber, the other optical properties of the latter being the same as those of the optical waveguide of the transmission line.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention will be explained in greater detail below with reference to an embodiment of the fiber-optic amplifier shown schematically in a drawing.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

As shown in the single drawings, the fiber-optic amplifier consists of a pump source 1, a pump coupler 2 with four ports 3-6 and an active length of fiber 7. The first port 3 of the pump coupler 2 is connected to the pump source 1, the second port 4 is connected to the optical waveguide of an incoming transmission line 8, and the third port 5 is connected to one end of the active length of fiber 7, whose further-going other connection end is connected to the optical waveguide of an outgoing transmission line 9. The fourth port 6 of the pump coupler 2 remains free in this case.

In the fiber-optic amplifier, whose length of fiber 7 is doped, for example, with erbium or neodymium, the active ions are excited by means of the pump source 1 in order to subsequently amplify the light waves of the signal light conducted by the incoming transmission line 8. To reduce the losses of the amplifier, which originate primarily because of the different mode field diameters between the active length of fiber 7 and the pump coupler 2 and the standardized optical waveguides of the incoming and outgoing transmission lines 8, 9 at the corresponding splices 10, the pump coupler 2 is fabricated from a fiber whose mode field diameter for the pump light is adjusted to the mode field diameter of the doped, active length of fiber 7. The smallest splice losses in this case are achieved by the fact that an undoped fiber or a fiber corresponding to the doped length of fiber 7 without doping is used. In this case, the losses resulting from a misadaptation of the mode field diameters are reduced to the splices 10 between the incoming transmission line 8 and the pigtail 4 of the pump coupler 2 on the one hand and to the splice 10 between the doped, active length of fiber 7 and the outgoing transmission line 9. Assuming that the coupler end of the first port 3 is coupled directly to the pump source 1, only the signal light is affected by the misadaptation of the mode field diameters in this solution. This misadaptation can, however, be reduced by means of a taper splice.

In an alternative solution, the loss of signal light at the splices 10 between the incoming transmission line 8 and the pump coupler 2 is reduced by the fact that the pump coupler 2 is fabricated from two different fibers. In this case, the pump arm extending between the first and third ports 3, 5 consists of a fiber whose mode field diameter for the pump light is adapted to the mode field diameter of the doped length of fiber 7. The signal arm of the pump coupler extending between the second and fourth ports 4, 6, on the other hand, consists of a fiber with an internal cladding region, whose refractive index is adapted to the refractive index of the outer cladding region (matched cladding) and which otherwise shows the same optical properties as the optical waveguide of the transmission line 8. Its fiber can, however, also show, for example, an inner optical cladding with a refractive index that is smaller than the refractive index of the outer fiber cladding (depressed cladding). The splice attenuation between the transmission line 8 consisting of a fiber of this type and the fiber used for the corresponding signal arm of the pump coupler 2 is, however, negligibly small.

If a coupler is fabricated from different fibers, the light will not couple over completely from the one fiber to subsequent other. In this way, part of the signal or pump light is lost for the amplification. A complete coupling-over of the light is possible only when the propagation constants B in each fiber are identical in the region of the coupling zone. The propagation constants can be adapted to each other, for example, by tapering one of the fibers before fusion and drawing to the coupler. Another possibility consists of the fact that, in one of the fibers, the cladding is removed completely or in part before drawing of the coupler by etching. In order to reduce the losses resulting from the misadaptation of the mode field diameters that is still present, the splice 10 is tapered between the doped length of fiber 7 and the optical waveguide of the outgoing transmission line 9. Taper splices can be produced both by drawing and reduction of the outside diameter of the fibers and also by means of core tapers, in which the adaptation of the mode field diameters is carried out by means of a heat source essentially affecting only the fiber cores.