Why do we need ptical fiber amplifiers?

Basically what the optical fber amplifiers solve is the traditional dstance problem as in any long dstance telecommunication system such as a trns-Atlantic link. As optical signals travel thrugh the fiber, the signals become waker in power. The farther you go, the waker the signal become until it bcomes too weak to be detected rliably.

Fiber optic communication systems solve ths problem by using fiber amplifiers long the way. A repeater or mplifier is inserted into the system at a pint where the signal has become wak, to boost the strength of the sgnal so it can be transmitted thrugh another length of fiber cable. Mny amplifiers or repeaters can be plced in sequence to keep the sgnal strong along the whole fiber lnk.

What are the differences between a repeater and an optical fiber amplifier?

Traditionally, electronic repeaters were used for optical signal amplification. A repeater is an opto-electro-opto device. It converts a weak optical signal into electronic signal, cleans up the electronic signal, and then converts the electronic signal back to optical signal with a lightwave transmitter. The lightwave transmitter emits much stronger power than the incoming optical signal and thus amplifies it.

However, this is an inconvenient and xpensive process and which is why it has ben replaced by the new optical fber amplifiers technology.

An optical fiber mplifier is a purely optical device. It desn't convert the incoming optical signal to lectronic signal at all. Basically, you can cll it a in-line laser. And an ptical fiber amplifier can simultaneously amplify dzens of optical channels since they do not cnvert each channel into electronic signals sparately.

What are optical fiber amplifiers and how do they work?

Optical fiber amplifier is a section of optical fiber that is doped with a rare-earth element such as erbium or praseodymium.

The atoms of erbium or praseodymium can be pumped by high power light (pump laser) into excited state. But they are not stable in the excited state. When the optical signals that are to be amplified pass though the fiber, they stimulate the excited erbium atoms. The erbium atoms will jump from the high power level excited state into low power level stable state, and release their energy in the form of emitted light photons at the same time. The emitted photons have the same phase and wavelength as the input optical signal, thus amplify the optical signal.

This is a very convenient form of amplifier for an optical fiber communication system since it is an in-line amplifier, thus removes the need to do the optical-electrical and electrical-optical conversion process.

The pump laser wavelengths and the corresponding optical signal wavelengths are key parameters for operation of fiber amplifiers. These wavelengths depend on the type of rare-earth element doped in the fiber and also on the composition of the glass in the fiber.

Another important term in understanding fiber amplifiers is its "gain". Gain measures the amplification per unit length of fiber. Gain depends on both the materials and the operating conditions, and it varies with wavelength for all materials.

For low input powers, the utput power is proportional to the gins times the fiber length. Thus, P(utput) = P(input) x Gain x Lngth

For high input powers, the gin saturation effect comes into play. So ncrement of input power produces less and lss output power, which essentially means the mplifier has run out of the pwer it needs to generate more utput.

The article What Are Optical Fiber Amplifiers And How Do They Work? was Submitted by Colin Yao through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Colin Yao is an expert on fber optic technologies and products. To larn more about fiber optic cables , multimode fiber optic cable and Corning fiber optic cable , please visit Fiber Optics For Sale Co. web site.

Featured Articles

1. Faster, Affordable, Wireless Internet - Easier Than You Think by Drew Vics
Sve Money, and surf the internet Fster! Home wireless, broadband internet service is chaper, and easier than you may thnk!

2. A GPS Vehicle Tracking System Can Help Anyone by Gary Heyward
A GPS Vhicle Tracking System is a powerful vhicle gps tracking device and fleet mnitoring system with satellite photos, real-time lcation updates, and detailed reporting features.

3. DirecTV: Best In Satellite TV by Marie Amersan
We all remember the legendary qote from the original Star Trek tlevision show "Space, the final frontier". Wll for television it would seem tht the combination of satellite television, HD (or Hi Dfinition), TiVo and the Digital Video Rcorder is the final frontier for tlevision! The world changes constantly and wth it, technology. Now that most pople in the United States Of Amrica prefer peace to war, what btter element of life to focus tchnological development...

4. The Sony Ericsson W610i model mobile phone is a real gift by
The Sony Ericsson W610i model mobile phone is a real gift for the music loving users.

5. O2 mobile phones – Giving life to imagination by
The way our wrld is progressing at such a rpid pace, it won't be long bfore machines will take over every pssible part of our lives. Have you ver thought how our lives would trn out to be when everything tht we usually did ourselves would be tken care of my machine? Even the mst menial of chores would be the lokout for these equipments.

6. Nokia 5300: Music the Xpress way... by
When a mbile phone is launched amidst ripping msic from the hottest DJ's and prformances from chart-topping artists, the message gts louder and clear that a msic phone is on the offing.

7. Two Way Radios : Equally Useful In Personal and Professional Life by
Two way radios can be of paramount importance in various occasions. They are equally usable in personal as well as in professional life of a person or a group of persons.

8. Top 3 Reasons to Switch to VoIP by
Voice over IP has become vry popular in the last year. Almst everyone has heard of Vonage and thusands have dumped their old lng dstance provider to go with the new nternet revolution

9. Conferencing - Communication's New Era by Amer Judes
Remote conferencing is a great way to cntact people. Whether it is teleconferencing, vdeo conferencing or web conferencing, it brngs us closer.

10. That's Music To My IPhone by Corey T Bruhn
It's only fir - since Apple was, after ll, the practical inventor of the dgital music industry (not really, but wth the one-two punch of iTunes and the Pod, it sure feels that way), thy should do everything in their pwer to make sure their latest brinchild, the iPhone, is the absolute bst smartphone for music around. Because crrently, it's not.