O Band Amplifiers - Exceptional properties that sets them apart

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The O band amplifiers have a massive demand in optoelectronics and optical communication applications. After the first invention of the optical amplifier way back in the late 1980s, the market was flooded with many exceptional and industrial-friendly optical amplifiers over the next 40 years to cater to the diverse industrial needs.

SemiconductorOptical Amplifiers (SOA) and Fiber Optical Amplifiers (FOA) are the two major types of optical amplifiers. The FOA can be further classified into different types, including Fiber Raman Amplifiers (FRA) and Rare Earth-doped Fiber Amplifiers.


Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOA)


Rare earth-doped fiber amplifiers are further divided into various types, including O-Band amplifiers, S-band amplifiers, and, L-band amplifiers.

Although all of these optical amplifiers have their own pros & cons, the O band amplifier excels overall its fellow amplifiers when it comes to advantages and applications. 

The Salient Characteristics of the O Band Optical Amplifier

The O band amplifier, also known as Praseodymium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (PDFA), has replaced conventional crystal and semiconductor optical amplifiers for integration in space applications to enhance the performances.

Rare-earth doped fiber amplifiers exploit the spectroscopic properties of Rare Earth ions such as Erbium, Ytterbium, and Praseodymium– and sometimes combinations of several of them. Doping the fiber core with these ions helps to maximize the distance for data transmission.

The O band amplifier are broadly used for their effective and reliable characteristics such as,

·         High gain

·         Polarization-independent gain

·         High saturation output power

·         Low noise figure, and 

·         Low insertion loss

 

All these characteristics made this technology very interesting for space applications too. These devices can serve as active components of inter-satellite and satellite-ground telecommunication and are part of fiber optic gyroscope devices.

Along with all these fundamental properties, O band amplifiers also possess the below characteristics.

Exceptional Properties of O band Amplifiers

The higher doping concentration enables efficient pump absorption in a shorter length and, therefore, lessens the high peak power device's nonlinearities effects. The doping concentration is defined in ppm wt (parts per million by weight).

In addition, the high solubility of rare-earth for large concentration doping large temperature the gap between the glass transition to crystallization temperature and physical durability such as mechanical and moisture robustness is the demanding physical features of the O-band amplifier.

The schematic representation of Rare earth-doped fiber amplifiers

The rare earth elements are a good choice for the amplification process because 6s and 5d orbitals protect their moderately isolated 4f electron orbitals. This means the electrons present in the 4f orbitals have relatively last longer and take more time to decay.

All these remarkable properties and characteristics make the O band amplifier a potential instrument in a wide variety of applications, principally to increase the number of channels and transmission capacity in the optical network systems. 

Before we conclude, let us know some of the major applications of O band optical amplifiers in brief.

Application of O band Amplifiers

Some of the most known and important applications of the O band amplifiers are as followed:

·         For spacecraft altitude measurement

·         Telecom

·         Atmospheric light imaging, detection and ranging (LIDAR)

·         Navigation system

·         Automated planetary rovers

·         Bathymetry– underwater depth and ocean floors study

 

We are confident that this piece has helped you comprehend why O band amplifiers are superior to their fellow amplifiers in terms of advantages and applications.

Inphenix is a leading optical device manufacturing company based in California, USA. The company specialized in manufacturing and supplying various lasers and light sources, including VCSELs, swept source laser, broadband light source, Fabry-Perot lasers, and amplifiers worldwide. For more information about its service and products, visit us.

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