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Session 1626

NSF-Supported Instrumentation: Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers and Distributed Feedback Lasers for Technicians in Training

Don Engelberg Queensborough Community College/ The City University of New York

Abstract Under an NSF ILI grant we are developing experiments and laboratory writeups related to erbium- doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA’s) and distributed feedback (DFB) lasers suitable for student technicians in an AAS degree program in Laser and Fiber Optics Technology. Emphasis is on characterizing the devices using standard test equipment. Densely-packed wavelength division multiplexing is demonstrated using a pair of temperature-tuned DFB lasers with a simulated demultiplexer based on a splitter and monochro- maters equipped with InGaAs detectors. Laser spectral width is measured with nonconfocal scanning inter- ferometers. EDFA linearity is checked using levelled sinewave generators and high speed digitizing oscilloscopes. Digital capability is investigated using bit-error-rate test sets producing FDDI and SONET test patterns.

Practical realization of all-optical amplifiers is having a major impact on the world of fiber optic telecommunications. A recent study by ElectroniCast Corporation forecasts, “Consumption of optical amplifiers worldwide is expected to expand to $575 million by 1999 from a 1994 figure of $255 million . . . After the turn of this century demand should continue to grow at a rate of 15.6% per year [through] 2004.’” Knowledge about and experience with these systems and the sources used to feed them is of great practical importance to technical personnel in the fiber optics area. The Department of Physics at Queensborough Community College, one of the 22 units of the City University of New York, supervises a TAC/ABET accredited A.A.S. degree program in Laser and Fiber Optics Technology with roughly 125 enrolled stu- dents. A very recently completed NSF-ILI grant (number: DUE 9351683) has allowed us to develop labora- tory experiments designed to introduce these student technicians to distributed feedback (DFB) lasers and erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). The concept behind the project is to teach the students not only how the devices work and how to operate them, but also how to characterize and test them. Thus, we had to deal with an array of test instruments as well as the devices themselves.

The Equipment EDFA Most mature of the optical amplifiers k the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA). A practical EDFA system has several parts in addition to the doped fiber itself. [See Figure 1] A pump laser producing radia- tion with 980 nm wavelength works well for erbium-doped fiber. The laser is most conveniently handled if it k put in an appropriate diode laser mount. The pump laser needs to be cooled, and electrical power must be supplied. We use a thermoelectric cooler (TEC), for which appropriate electric power must also be pro-

~’tig’ij 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings ‘.

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Engelberg, D. (1996, June), Nsf Supported Instrumentation: Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers And Distributed Feedback Lasers For Technicians In Training Paper presented at 1996 Annual Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--6215