Abstract

Given the low dispersion of the vast majority of installed fiber at 1.3 µm, the emergence of an analog-grade power amplifier in silica fiber at 1.3 µm could have a significant impact on the fiber-intensive delivery of AM-VSB video channels. Raman amplifiers are attractive 1.3 µm amplifier candidates due to their all-silica construction and the ease with which they be tuned. While previous Raman amplifier designs have generated both high gains and large output powers, they have failed to demonstrated analog-grade noise performance.^1-4 In this paper, we describe a novel Raman amplifier design that overcomes the noise limitations of previous Raman amplifiers and allows for analog-grade noise performance while generating an output power of +23 dBm.⁵

© 1996 Optical Society of America